Hamidou Diallo, P.J. Washington and Cam Reddish shine in Team USA win over France

The Team USA U19 team remains unbeaten in exhibition play thanks to another solid outing by P.J. Washington and Hamidou Diallo.

Playing its second exhibition game on Thursday, Team USA claimed an 82-60 victory as Diallo led the way with 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting.

“He’s (Hami) gotten so much better, he’s not the same player he was, he’s just not. He’s better skilled, he’s more disciplined, he’ll still do some undisciplined things but you expect it,” said Calipari after the win, via Team USA’s website. “What I want him to be, if he wants to be the best player in the country, is be a lock-down defender. Because offense happens. He can run, jump, and move with the ball. He’s shooting it way better than he has and now it’s just, ‘let’s see.’”

Washington chipped in 13 points, four rebounds and four assists. He’s been big a reason why Team USA has been so stout defensively in two exhibition games.

“I felt like on the defensive end we pressed out and played great defense, we got a lot of rebounds, got out on fast breaks and just converted on those,” said Washington. “If we get stops I feel like offense comes easy for us. I feel like we’re not a half court team that we’re more of a fast break team, so good defense is really important for us.”

UK target Cameron Reddish did a little bit of everything with six points, six rebounds and a team-high six assists. UNLV signee Brandon McCoy and Auburn big man Austin Wiley both chipped in nine points and seven boards.

Calipari elected to go with the same starting five in this game with Immanuel Quickley, Reddish, Diallo, Wiley and Washington. Team USA will now open preliminary round action versus Iran on July 1 (11:30 a.m. EST).

Here are some highlights of the win over France:

Here are some highlights of Wednesday’s scrimmage with Lithuania:

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