HARD LESSON
7/27/2025 4:58:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Agbim finds Silver lining in USA's 94-88 OT loss to Brazil at WUG
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Morgan Wootten, a Hall of Fame coach who won five national championships at DeMatha Catholic High School, is credited with saying that "you learn more from losing than winning. You learn how to keep going."
That was a painful lesson for Team USA, represented by the Baylor men's basketball team, in the World University Games.
Leading by as many as 26 points and up by 22 going into the fourth quarter, the Americans saw Brazil score 35 points in a furious fourth-quarter rally and pull out a 94-88 overtime win in Saturday's gold-medal game in Essen, Germany.
"In the long term, it's really, really good for us," said Wyoming transfer Obi Agbim, who scored a game-high 30 points, "just for us to learn from this and be able to have this experience in our bg. But it hurts. We kind of flinched a little bit in the fourth, and I feel like we got comfortable. Credit Brazil for being able to keep their foot on the gas and really challenge us."
It was a tough finish for what had been an unbelievable run for a USA/Baylor team that was missing four of its top players. Five Baylor players are not American citizens, including 6-8 Oregon State transfer Michael Rataj, who averaged 17 points per game in helping the host Germany team get to the bronze-medal game
"Big shout out to this coaching staff for allowing us to gel together so fast in the last month," said Agbim, who averaged 20.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game while shooting 45.5% from 3-point range. "Just having this opportunity, it's a blessing, for sure. I'm super excited to see a lot of these guys' upside, because . . . their best games have yet to come. I'm really excited to see where we go and how we learn from this."
Dominating through the first three quarters, the Americans had held Brazil to 45 total points, 25.4% shooting overall and just 4-of-29 from outside the arc. USA took its biggest lead, 59-33, when Tennessee transfer Cameron Carr knocked down a 3-pointer about midway through the third and was up 67-45 going into the fourth.
But things changed in a hurry in the fourth quarter, when the Brazilians knocked down 6-of-10 from 3-point range and forced six turnovers.
"I wouldn't say there was anything specific (Brazil did)," Agbim said. "It was more of ourselves, like self-inflicted wounds, paper cuts – turning the ball over, not running really any sets on offense and just getting sped up and not playing to our pace. This was our first tournament playing with each other . . . and we're going to have a really good opportunity to learn from this. But again, credit to Brazil for the way they defended."
Brazil whittled it to a single-digit deficit with just under three minutes left in regulation and made it a one-point game, 78-77, on a driving layup by point guard Adyel Borges with 30 seconds left on the clock.
Agbim came up clutch, hitting a tough fade-away jumper in the lane that made it a three-point game with 8.9 seconds left. But after calling a timeout, Brazil's Reynan Dos Santos drained a 3-pointer over Cincinnati transfer Dan Skillings Jr. to tie it at 80-80.
In the final seconds, Baylor coach Scott Drew got the ball in Agbim's hands for another pull-up jumper from about 15 feet. But the ball bounced off the rim as the buzzer sounded, sending the game into OT.
"A big thing that says about it is, they know the next one's going in," Agbim said of the trust Drew and the coaches had in him. "And I feel really confident about shooting that next shot, that it's going to go in. I thank God just for the opportunity to have that shot. And I'm not going to hold my head down, because I know if that opportunity comes, I'm going to work for it and be prepared next time to make that shot."
Brazil dominated the overtime period, scoring the first six points and holding the Americans scoreless until Omaha transfer JJ White knocked down a 3-pointer with 3:15 left. USA was 3-for-8 from the floor in OT, turned it over three times and was 1-for-4 from the line.
Agbim (30) and Carr (26) combined for 56 of the Americans' 88 points, while Skillings posted another double-double with 15 points, 12 boards and three assists. Borges led Brazil with 25 points, four assists and four of his team's 13 steals.
"Oh man, I can go on for a while," Agbim said of Carr, who was second on the team with 18.2 points per game. "There's not a lot of guys that can do what he does, just him having the energy, being able to score, being able to be so athletic. There's just not a lot of people out there like him."
Returning home on Sunday, the Baylor men will start prepping for the 2025-26 season, adding Rataj, 6-11 High Point transfer Juslin Bodo Bodo and freshmen Mayo Soyoye, Maikcol Perez and Tounde Yessoufou, a 5-star prospect and 6-5 wing who is projected to be a lottery pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.
Baylor Bear Insider
Morgan Wootten, a Hall of Fame coach who won five national championships at DeMatha Catholic High School, is credited with saying that "you learn more from losing than winning. You learn how to keep going."
That was a painful lesson for Team USA, represented by the Baylor men's basketball team, in the World University Games.
Leading by as many as 26 points and up by 22 going into the fourth quarter, the Americans saw Brazil score 35 points in a furious fourth-quarter rally and pull out a 94-88 overtime win in Saturday's gold-medal game in Essen, Germany.
"In the long term, it's really, really good for us," said Wyoming transfer Obi Agbim, who scored a game-high 30 points, "just for us to learn from this and be able to have this experience in our bg. But it hurts. We kind of flinched a little bit in the fourth, and I feel like we got comfortable. Credit Brazil for being able to keep their foot on the gas and really challenge us."
It was a tough finish for what had been an unbelievable run for a USA/Baylor team that was missing four of its top players. Five Baylor players are not American citizens, including 6-8 Oregon State transfer Michael Rataj, who averaged 17 points per game in helping the host Germany team get to the bronze-medal game
"Big shout out to this coaching staff for allowing us to gel together so fast in the last month," said Agbim, who averaged 20.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game while shooting 45.5% from 3-point range. "Just having this opportunity, it's a blessing, for sure. I'm super excited to see a lot of these guys' upside, because . . . their best games have yet to come. I'm really excited to see where we go and how we learn from this."
Dominating through the first three quarters, the Americans had held Brazil to 45 total points, 25.4% shooting overall and just 4-of-29 from outside the arc. USA took its biggest lead, 59-33, when Tennessee transfer Cameron Carr knocked down a 3-pointer about midway through the third and was up 67-45 going into the fourth.
But things changed in a hurry in the fourth quarter, when the Brazilians knocked down 6-of-10 from 3-point range and forced six turnovers.
"I wouldn't say there was anything specific (Brazil did)," Agbim said. "It was more of ourselves, like self-inflicted wounds, paper cuts – turning the ball over, not running really any sets on offense and just getting sped up and not playing to our pace. This was our first tournament playing with each other . . . and we're going to have a really good opportunity to learn from this. But again, credit to Brazil for the way they defended."
Brazil whittled it to a single-digit deficit with just under three minutes left in regulation and made it a one-point game, 78-77, on a driving layup by point guard Adyel Borges with 30 seconds left on the clock.
Agbim came up clutch, hitting a tough fade-away jumper in the lane that made it a three-point game with 8.9 seconds left. But after calling a timeout, Brazil's Reynan Dos Santos drained a 3-pointer over Cincinnati transfer Dan Skillings Jr. to tie it at 80-80.
In the final seconds, Baylor coach Scott Drew got the ball in Agbim's hands for another pull-up jumper from about 15 feet. But the ball bounced off the rim as the buzzer sounded, sending the game into OT.
"A big thing that says about it is, they know the next one's going in," Agbim said of the trust Drew and the coaches had in him. "And I feel really confident about shooting that next shot, that it's going to go in. I thank God just for the opportunity to have that shot. And I'm not going to hold my head down, because I know if that opportunity comes, I'm going to work for it and be prepared next time to make that shot."
Brazil dominated the overtime period, scoring the first six points and holding the Americans scoreless until Omaha transfer JJ White knocked down a 3-pointer with 3:15 left. USA was 3-for-8 from the floor in OT, turned it over three times and was 1-for-4 from the line.
Agbim (30) and Carr (26) combined for 56 of the Americans' 88 points, while Skillings posted another double-double with 15 points, 12 boards and three assists. Borges led Brazil with 25 points, four assists and four of his team's 13 steals.
"Oh man, I can go on for a while," Agbim said of Carr, who was second on the team with 18.2 points per game. "There's not a lot of guys that can do what he does, just him having the energy, being able to score, being able to be so athletic. There's just not a lot of people out there like him."
Returning home on Sunday, the Baylor men will start prepping for the 2025-26 season, adding Rataj, 6-11 High Point transfer Juslin Bodo Bodo and freshmen Mayo Soyoye, Maikcol Perez and Tounde Yessoufou, a 5-star prospect and 6-5 wing who is projected to be a lottery pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.
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