Arizona players perform well at FIBA U19 World Cup in Latvia

The FIBA U19 Basketball Wold Cup came to a close over the weekend with a gold medal for the United States. The final game wrapped up a week of contests featuring top current and incoming college-level players from around the globe. Arizona was represented by three of its players while director of advanced scouting Ken Nakagawa served as Japan's video coordinator for the event.

Sophomore wing Benn Mathurin finished best among the group of Wildcats as Canada took the bronze medal in the event. Sophomore big man Azuolas Tubelis took sixth place with his squad from Lithuania while incoming big man and Gonzaga transfer Oumar Ballo came in 13th with his team from Mali.

Here is a rundown of how each player performed at the event that went from July 3-11.

Mathurin is going to be a key piece of Arizona's team this year, and he put together a productive summer with his squad from Canada. The team made it to the third-place game after losing to the US team by six points in the semifinals. Mathurin capped his time in Latvia with a huge performance as he scored 31 points in a 101-92 win over Serbia to earn the bronze. The big wing was perfect from 2-point range making all 11 of his attempts from inside the arc.

He also connected on nine of his 10 free-throw attempts in the win to go along with three rebounds, two assists and two steals. Overall he finished the tournament as the seventh-best scorer after averaging 16.1 points for Canada over the course of seven games. Mathurin hit the 30-point mark twice during the tournament as he scored 30 points against Japan in his second game of the event.

He averaged four rebounds and 1.9 assists per game for Canada. Mathurin, who averaged 34.5% from 3-point range during the tournament, scored 19 points and grabbed five rebounds in the semifinal matchup against the US team.

Tubelis, like Mathurin, is going to be one of the most important pieces of Arizona's team this year and he also was a big part of his team's success this summer in Latvia. The UA sophomore helped Lithuania reach the quarterfinal round where it lost to France by five points. Over the course of seven games Tubelis was able to average 16.6 points leading to a spot among the top five scorers in the tournament.

He finished tied for fourth with 8.9 rebounds for his team over the course of the event.

Tubelis scored at least 15 points in four of the seven games with a personal best of 32 points in the opening game against Canada. He scored 20 points and grabbed 15 rebounds in a loss to Spain to close out the tournament.

The newcomer from Gonzaga was a big part of his team's production during the event as Ballo finished his time in Latvia averaging 12.6 points to lead Mali in scoring. He also tied Tubelis for fourth overall in rebounds after averaging 8.9 rebounds over seven games at the event.

After not reaching double figures in the first two games, Ballo had at least 10 points over the final five games of the tournament. His best performance came against Japan as he had 18 points and 11 rebounds in a victory. Ballo went 9 for 12 from the field in that contest.

He also shined in a loss to Turkey after scoring 16 points and pulling down 13 rebounds in that game. Seven of his rebounds came on the offensive glass.

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