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Players Mentioned
Wrap-Up: Brase Earns Silver in Korea, Weisz Starts for Israel in FIBA U-20s
July 19, 2015 | Men's Basketball
Across the globe from one another and from Princeton, teammates Hans Brase and Spencer Weisz have wrapped up their international competitions, with Brase playing for Germany in the World University Games in South Korea and Weisz for Israel in Italy for the FIBA U-20 European Championship.
Brase's competition wrapped Monday, July 13, with the Princeton rising senior helping Germany to the WUG silver medal, scoring six points, grabbing six rebounds and adding three assists as the Germans pushed Team USA, made up almost entirely of players from the University of Kansas, to double overtime before falling 84-77. Two of Brase's buckets in the gold medal game were particularly eye-catching, with a two-handed jam to end the half and bring Germany within 38-33, and an off-balance jumper to beat the shot clock and give Germany a 66-62 lead with 1:39 in the fourth quarter.
Kansas, with just two non-Jayhawk players on the squad (SMU's Nic Moore and FGCU's Julian DeBose), was selected to represent the U.S. after USA Basketball had sent all-star teams to previous World University Games but hadn't come away with gold since 2005. Germany was in its first-ever WUG gold-medal game.
On the way to the final, Brase was a major contributor to the Germans' 6-0 start, which included four wins in pool play, a quarterfinal win over Canada and a semifinal win over Brazil. For the tournament, Brase averaged 11 points and 7.4 rebounds a game, including a high of 16 points against China and 15 rebounds against South Korea. The list included two double-doubles, with 13 points along with the 15 boards against South Korea and 11 points and 10 rebounds against Canada.
In Italy, rising junior Weisz was a starter for Israel in the FIBA U-20 European Championship, where Israel finished 10th in a field of 20 teams. Israel went 3-1 in first-stage pool play, with Weisz's best game statistically as the last of those four, scoring seven points and grabbing nine rebounds in a 70-67 win over Latvia. That game featured an impressive comeback by Israel, which trailed 66-56 with 2:28 to go before closing the game on a 14-1 run in which Weisz hit the final two free throws to ice it with eight seconds left.
In the three-game second stage of pool play against Belgium, France and Italy, Weisz continued his starting role with his best game of the three coming against Belgium witth seven points and six rebounds.
Though Israel was tripped up in those three games, the team bounced back with a 54-46 win over Germany in the first of two ninth-through-12th-place classification games, with Weisz scoring five points and grabbing seven rebounds. The 13-day tournament wrapped Sunday, July 19 with Weisz getting six points and five boards in a rematch against Italy that the Italians won 77-69 to finish ninth and place Israel 10th.