One of the most talented basketball athletes that will be returning to Montverde Academy is senior guard Cade Cunningham '19 who recently made his spot on Team USA's U19 National team.
Cunningham will join five USA gold medalists, five players who completed their first collegiate season in 2018-19, and six players from the high school class of 2020 and one athlete from the 2019 graduating class.
U19 Team USA Roster:
Scottie Barnes (University School)
Cade Cunningham (Montverde Academy)
Jalen Green (Prolific Prep)
Tyrese Haliburton (Iowa State)
Kira Lewis Jr. (Alabama/Meridianville)
Isaac Likekele (Oklahoma State)
Evan Mobley (Rancho Christian School)
Reggie Perry (Mississippi State)
Jeremiah Robinson-Earl (IMG Academy, FL)
Jalen Suggs (Minnehaha Academy)
Trevion Williams (Purdue)
Ziaire Williams (Notre Dame H.S.)
Team USA recently competed in their first two exhibition games at Heraklion, Crete, Greece. In their first game against Greece, Cunningham led the USA offense with 16 points on an efficient 7-of-9 shooting from the field and was perfect from beyond the arc (2-2).
"I think the game was good for the team and helps brings us together a little bit more especially after the long flights, the long trip over here," said Cunningham. "It's a good win for us and I think it will help us in the long run. It's a long tournament so it was good to get a good little exhibition game in and come together as a team.
Their next exhibition game against Serbia proved to be a tougher challenge for team USA as they won by just 4 points 92-88. Team USA cruised past Serbia in the first three quarters maintaining double-digit leads. Serbia fought back with an impressive fourth quarter outscoring the U.S. 27-14 with 1 minute left in the game. Cunningham finished the game with 15 points and scored on a drive to put the USA back ahead 89-87 with 51 seconds left.
After a made field goal from Serbia, Jalen Suggs made one of two free throws with 31.6 seconds remaining to up the USA lead to 90-88. After getting a stop on the other end, Suggs was fouled on a drive to the basket with 5.8 seconds to play. Suggs made both free throws to push the USA ahead by four, 92-88, and Serbia missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Sixteen teams will compete for the U19 World title and they have been divided into four groups for preliminary, round-robin games. The USA was drawn into Group A and will open preliminary play against New Zealand on June 29, then face Lithuania on June 30 and Senegal on July 2.
 The USA opens U19 World Cup play at (1:00 p.m. EDT) Saturday against New Zealand, then faces Lithuania on June 30 (10:45 a.m. EDT) and will close out preliminary round play versus Senegal on July 2 (9:00 a.m. EDT).
Following the preliminary round, all teams will advance to the round of 16 on July 3. The winners of the round of 16 will advance to the medal quarterfinals on July 5, and the losers will play out for ninth-16th places. The semifinals will be played on July 6, and the gold and bronze medal games on July 7.
All of the USA's preliminary round game will stream live online at YouTube.com/FIBA and Facebook.com/USA Basketball. ESPN+ will broadcast the USA's quarterfinals, semifinals and finals games should the team advance.
