FIBA U19W - Old rivals do battle in Group B

PUERTO MONTT (FIBA U19 World Championship for Women) - East meets west, and north meets south in Group B of the 2011 FIBA U19 World Championship for women.

The group features perhaps the oldest of basketball rivals, the USA and Russia, who are favoured to take the first two places. Argentina and Japan round out the pool, and with only three spots available in the Eight Finals each match-up will be vital.

The USA are the defending world champions at U19 and U17 level, and bring a team packed with gold medal experience to Chile. While coach Jennifer Rizzotti is intent on studying her opponents, she thinks her team has enough talent if they execute their plan each night.

"We're a little bit familiar with Argentina, having played them last year. Japan and Russia, we have film from the U17 world championships, but it could be a very different roster," Rizzotti said.

"More importantly, we want to have ourselves prepared and ready to go and know that it's in our control. If we do the things that we're good at, we shouldn't have to worry too much about our first couple of games."

Russia finished fifth at last year's European championship, but had some disappointing performances, none more so than their 51-38 loss to France in the quarter finals.

The Russians bring a number of new players to Chile, and coach Olga Shuneykina is hopeful the newcomers will give her team a boost. "Our team has one-third renewal because of injuries," she said.

"Without doubt a loss of injured players is a serious problem but I hope that our rookies will step them into their shoes and do their best to help the team."

One player to watch is Ksenia Tikhonenko, Russia's leading scorer and rebounder at the 2010 FIBA U17 World Championship for Women. Her best game was a 22 point, 16 rebound explosion against Japan on opening night as the Russian triumphed 93-68.

Japan would remarkably turn that result around just nine days later to win 74-68 and claim fifth place, and with a number of those same Japanese players making the squad for Chile, including star small forward Moeko Nagaoka, the two countries' match-up on the last night of the first round could be a spirited encounter.

In last year's FIBA U18 Asia Championship, Japan went undefeated until the final, where China steamrolled them 122-78 to claim gold after losing their earlier match-up.

Argentina snuck into the world championship field by finishing fifth at the FIBA U18 Americas Championship. While that result would indicate they will struggle to progress to the Eight Finals, US coach Rizzotti is aware they have talent on their roster.

"Melisa Gretter and Rocio Diaz were really good (last year). Gretter was very scrappy. She was really competitive, and we definitely had to keep our eye on her the whole game."

Gretter and Diaz were the Argentines two leading scorers at both the U18 Americas and U17 world championship last year, and will have to produce big tournaments if Argentina is going to defend their bronze medal from the 2009 U19 world championship in Thailand.

Group B tips off with on 21 July in Puerto Montt with the USA taking on Japan at 1330 local time, followed by Argentina facing Russia at 1630.

FIBA