ISTANBUL (Türkiye) - Mission accomplished for USA Basketball as they finished off another undefeated title run by beating Serbia 107-81 to win the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2026.
The Americans were ahead by 12 points at halftime but delivered the knockout punch late in the third quarter and scoring the first 14 points of the fourth quarter to improve to 58-0 all-time in the competition history.
CJ Rosser paced five Americans in double figures with 23 points, while Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje collected 20 points and 15 rebounds, and Beckham Black added 12 points and 10 assists.
"It was very competitive. We knew it'd be competitive. They're fighters and we knew that. I didn't think we played great but I thought we still played hard, and I think we wore them down in the end. And that's probably why we won," said USA head coach Scott Fitch.
"It's special. We respect the rest of the world very much. We know we got to work hard but it's a huge feeling of gratitude. These kids work very hard. They bought into everything. They came with the right mindset and I thought they played for each other. When you do that good things typically happen."
Boumtje Boumtje took home MVP honors in his first FIBA event.
"Great feelings, really happy, really proud of the team to come together like this so quickly and MVP on top of that. I'm really happy. It shows my skills and hard work," said Boumtje Boumtje.
"It really just shows how hard we work - the most dominant country ever in this category. So hopefully future generations can keep it going and and we got this one."
Serbia had already clinched their best ever performance in the event's history by reaching the Final. Their only previous top-three showing was third place in 2014. Nikola Kusturica gave all he could in the loss with 37 points - setting a new record for points scored in a Final - to go with 9 rebounds.
USA had the first spurt in the opening frame with 13 straight points to lead 15-6. The cushion twice grew to 11 points - including a 30-19 gap after 10 minutes.
The Serbs scored the first five points of the second frame to trim the deficit to 30-24 and it was 34-29. The cushion swelled to 12 points at 43-31. Serbia tried to stay close and were only down 57-45 at the break.
Serbia would not let USA get too far away but USA scored eight straight points near the end of the third quarter to open a 81-57 margin. The score was 81-61 after 30 minutes and the Europeans did not get closer than points the rest of the way.
FIBA