The 56-season history of the United States Under-21 team has featured some of the all-time great players in Buzzerbeater history. Joe Bronson, Calvin Webb, Devin Farnsworth and Philip Mrosla are just a small selection of the impressive players who have donned the USA U21 jersey and competed for a World’s Gold. But none of these BB-Hall of Famers has ever accomplished what the rising young star of the Alaska Alphas did this week: 300+ points in a single U21 season. Alphas’ Rufo Celanova
(50952017) became USA U21’s single season scoring leader in last week’s semifinal with a 47 point outburst to down Italy, in what is becoming known in American circles as the “Rufo Patient” offense. He followed that excellent performance with 16 points in today’s final against Spain. Unfortunately, the Stars and Stripes came up just shy of their 6th World Championship, falling to the Spaniards 96-75.
Rufo finishes his U21 career 8th on the USA all-time leading scorer’s list with 309 total points. His 47 point performance against Italy ties for the second-most in a single game in the history of the program. Across 14 contests, he averaged 22.1 points and 6.2 rebounds per game, slashing .486/.434/.815. Rufo will be inducted into the Alaska Alphas Hall of Fame at halftime of the opening home game of Season 62.