USA Basketball's U17 men's basketball team defeated Latvia 108-72 to advance to today's title game with Australia in the Gran Canaria U17 International Invitational in Las Palmas, Canary Islands.
With Jabari Parker sitting with a ankle injury, another Chicago player, Jahlil Okafor of Whitney Young, led Team USA with 26 points and 15 rebounds.
Dakari Johnson of Montverde (Fla.) Academy added 17 points and seven rebounds for Team USA while Tyus Jones of Apple Valley, Minn., had 10 assists and five steals.
"Coach (Don) Showalter got on us after the first quarter," Okafor said. "He let us know that we weren't playing how we were supposed to be playing and after that we turned up our intensity. We have our gold medal standards and we weren't playing by those gold medal standards. He got onto us and we picked it up."
Team USA continues to the U17 World Championship in Lituania starting Friday.
