High School

USA U16 girls crush Panama by 119 in quarterfinals, break FIBA AmeriCup records for assists, margin of victory

Ivanna Wilson-Manyacka scores 26, Americans open on 44-0 run and set new assist mark in 131-12 win

Levi Payton

USA Basketball's U16 Women's Junior National Team - loaded with some of the top recruits from across the country - set a record for largest margin of victory in U16 Women's AmeriCup history when they beat Panama by 119 points on Friday, June 20, 2025.
USA Basketball's U16 Women's Junior National Team - loaded with some of the top recruits from across the country - set a record for largest margin of victory in U16 Women's AmeriCup history when they beat Panama by 119 points on Friday, June 20, 2025. / USA Basketball

The United States didn’t just win its quarterfinal matchup at the FIBA U16 Women’s AmeriCup on Thursday night – it made history.

Behind a 44-0 opening run and a relentless team-wide effort, the Americans crushed Panama 131-12 in Irapuato, Mexico, to advance to Friday’s semifinals. The 119-point victory set a new tournament record for the largest margin of victory, surpassing a 111-point win over the Dominican Republic in 2009.

USA led 76-8 at halftime.

Ivanna Wilson-Manyacka, a 6-foot-1 forward from the Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland, continued her standout play with a team-high 26 points. Jordyn Haywood, a 6-foot-1 guard from Mary Institute & St. Louis Country Day School (MICDS) in St. Louis, Missouri, scored 20 points, going 4-for-4 from 3-point range.

"The good thing about today is, I heard we broke an assist record," USA head coach Steve Gomez said in a statement to USA Basketball. "We shared the ball, and we shot the ball really good."

The Americans entered the knockout stage after dominating Group A earlier in the week, going 3-0 with blowout wins over Puerto Rico, Brazil and Argentina. Thursday’s game brought more of the same. Applying full-court pressure from the opening tip, the U.S. forced 16 first-quarter steals and converted them into layups in transition. Panama had no answer.

"We find most of our points in transition," Haywood told USA Basketball. "Playing good defense leads to transition points, so I feel like we really found success in that area."

The second quarter brought more of the same, even as the Americans eased off the pressure. All 12 players scored by halftime, and the lead swelled to 76-8 at the break.

Tatianna “Tati” Griffin – a 5-foot-11 guard from Ontario Christian High in Ontario, California – scored eight of her 14 points in the third quarter, including a 3-pointer that pushed the Americans past the 100-point mark with 2 minutes left in the period. The USA defense held Panama to just four points in the quarter and zero in the fourth.

It tied the fewest points allowed by a U.S. team in the tournament’s history, according to USA Basketball.

Arianna Robinson (Plano East; Plano, Texas) scored 13 points for the U.S., while Eve Long (Olathe South; Olathe, Kansas) scored 11 points on 5 of 5 shooting, while Reece Gilpatrick (Broomfield; Broomfield, Colorado) and Caroline Bradley (Oak Grove; Oak Grove, Louisiana) had 10 points each. Nation Williams (Centennial; Las Vegas, Nevada) scored 9 points, while Morghan Reckley (Sandy Creek; Tyrone, Georgia) had 8, Olivia Jones (Long Island Lutheran; Brookville, New York) had 7 and Jazman Bailey (Mansfield Lake Ridge; Mansfield, Texas) had 3.

The US advanced to face the winner of Mexico and Venezuela in the semifinals set for 10 p.m. ET Friday.

A night earlier, Long led all scorers with 17 points in a 101-46 win over Argentina to close group play. Long has scored in double figures every game of the tournament, averaging 12.7 points. Micah Ojo (Princess Anne; Virginia Beach, Va.), Wilson-Manyacka and Griffin all entered the game among the tournament leaders in steals.

The USA improved to 4-0 in the 2025 tournament and 46-1 all-time at the U16 Women’s AmeriCup.

Recommended Articles

manual

Published
Levi Payton
LEVI PAYTON

Levi’s sports journalism career began in 2005. A Missouri native, he’s won multiple Press Association awards for feature writing and has served as a writer and editor covering high school sports as well as working beats in professional baseball, NCAA football, basketball, baseball and soccer. If you have a good story, he’d love to tell it.

Home/New York