Caleb Holt Leads USA to Gold Medal Game of FIBA U19 World Cup with Semifinal Rout of New Zealand

USA forces 21 turnovers while almost doubling the score of New Zealand; Now faces German in the finals

Grayson's Caleb Holt is a first-team all-state pick after averaging better than 18 points per game in 2024-25. Holt, who transferred to Prolific Prep to play his senior year, led Team USA to an easy FIBA U19 World Cup semifinal win on Saturday. / Colin Hubbard

Team USA is making it look easy.

The U19 American men's basketball team, led by 20 points from current Prolific Prep (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) shooting guard Caleb Holt, smacked New Zealand 120-64 in Saturday's U19 World Cup semifinal in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The 6-foot-6 rising senior, who last season played at Grayson (Ga.,), drilled 4 of 6 three-point attempts and was 4-for-4 on 2s to lead one of six USA players in double figures. He also had seven rebounds and four steals — the team had 11 and forced 21 turnovers.

The others double-digit scorers were Jasper Johnson (Link Academy graduate, Kentucky freshman) with 14 points, Nikolas Khamenia of Harvard-Westlake (now at Duke) had 13, Tyran Stokes of Notre Dame Sherman Oaks added 12, along with Mikel Brown Jr. (11) and AJ Dybansta (10).

After shooting 55% from the field (45 of 82), including 13-for-25 on 3s (52%), USA now plays German 2 p.m. (EST) on Sunday for the gold medal.

The American are 6-0 in World Cup play with previous wins over Australia (88-73), France (108-77), Cameroon (129-70), Jordan (140-67) and Canada (108-102). Brown is the team's leading scorer in those six games with a 15.3 average, followed by Dybansta (14.8), Koa Peat (12.7) and Holt (10.3).

USA needed 22 points from Dybansta and 20 by Brown to knock off Canada on Friday.

German had little trouble with Canada, winning 104-88 on July 1. Other wins for Germany are over Slovenia (75-68), China (90-66), Serbia (92-83), Australia (80-67) and Saturday over Slovenia again in the semifinals, 84-72.

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