Tennessee forward Tobe Awaka has been nothing short of impressive during Team USA’s three-game run in the group phase round this week.
Awaka, playing with the Team USA U19 Men’s Basketball team in the FIBA World Cup, defeated Madagascar 136-69 on June 24 in Debrecen, Hungary. Team USA then defeated Slovenia in a close 77-72 contest at the same location the following day.
The Americans then closed out the group phase round with a dominant 122-70 victory over Lebanon on Tuesday morning.
Team USA scored the most points in the three-game stretch (335) among any of the 16 countries in the group phase rounds. The Americans also had the highest +/- in the FIBA World Cup at +124, with the next closest coming in at +55 (Spain).
In the first game of the tournament, Awaka scored 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting to go along with seven rebounds in 15 minutes of action on the court against Madagascar.
Tobe Awaka with the putback
End Q1 | 🇺🇸 29 🇲🇬 19#USABMU19 pic.twitter.com/HNL2GoE65r
— USABJNT (@usabjnt) June 24, 2023
In the second game of the tournament, though, the rising Tennessee sophomore was dominant against Slovenia. Awaka led Team USA in scoring with 14 points and rebounding with 11 boards. Awaka also did it in a team-high 28 minutes on the court.
Tobe showing off the touch!
Awaka is up to a team-high 12 pts & 8 reb
🇺🇸 #USABMU19 x #FIBAU19 pic.twitter.com/iAN6ZNyGkt
— USABJNT (@usabjnt) June 25, 2023
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While Awaka’s scoring production did slow down a little in Team USA’s Tuesday game against Lebanon, the New York native was still strong on the boards. Awaka finished the third group game with five points on 2-of-3 shooting and the second-most rebounds on the team with eight.
Awaka is averaging 10.3 points and 8.6 rebounds while starting two of the three group stage games for Team USA.
Tobe Awaka finished his freshman season at Tennessee averaging 3.2 points and 3.8 rebounds per game over 34 appearances. While Awaka did emerge as a productive young player for Tennessee near the middle to end of the season, the offensive output that he is putting up for Team USA during the FIBA U19 World Cup is a good sign of things to come for Rick Barnes and the Volunteers.
Tennessee will certainly use Awaka in an expanded role throughout the highly-anticipated 2023-2024 basketball season after the departures of both Olivier Nkamhoua and Uros Plavsic.
Team USA and Tennessee forward Tobe Awaka will return to the court on Wednesday morning at 9:00 a.m. ET. The Americans will take on China in their first Round of 16 knockouts game. The games can be watched on FIBA’s YouTube page.
