Two Georgia high-school stars will play for a world championship Sunday.
Pace Academy power forward Wendell Carter and Pebblebrook High guard Collin Sexton, members of the U.S. national under-17 basketball team, will play against Turkey for the FIBA under-17 world title in Zaragoza, Spain.
Both have figured prominently – Sexton has come off the bench to lead the team in scoring at 17.2 points per game with 3.4 assists, second on the team. Carter, who has started, leads the U.S. in rebounding at 7.3 rebounds per game in the team’s six games thus far. Georgia is the only state to supply more than one team member to the 12-man roster.
“It is a huge honor,” said Darnell Sexton, Collin’s father. “It is very much an honor to have this experience. It by far supercedes anything he’s had the opportunity to take part in.”
The U.S. won its three pool-play games and has easily advanced in three knockout games – over Argentina in the round of 16, Korea in the quarterfinals and Lithuania in the semis on Friday.
In the quarterfinal on Thursday, Sexton led with 24 points on 8-for-13 shooting in a 133-81 rout, which set a single-game scoring record for the U.S. under-17 team. The United States has won all three FIBA under-17 championships and, in fact, is 29-0 in tournament play.
Carter and Sexton are both rising seniors. Carter is rated the No. 2 prospect nationally by ESPN; Sexton is No. 26. Georgia Tech was among several schools that sent coaches to the tournament to evaluate; new coach Josh Pastner and his staff are recruiting both players heavily.
They are not new teammates. The two actually once played together on an AAU team around the age of 12.
“Wendell has been playing excellent,” Darnell Sexton said. “He has been playing lights out. He has probably been one of the most dominant forces as far as the post players in this whole event.”
The game will begin at 3 p.m. EDT Sunday. It will be broadcast on ESPNU and online on FIBA’s Youtube channel.
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