HawgBeat - Arkansas targets show out in FIBA U17 World Cup
HawgBeat looks at how Arkansas targets competed in the FIBA U17 World Cup on Saturday.
arkansas.rivals.com
Arkansas head coach John Calipari was in Istanbul, Turkey, over the weekend scouting and recruiting high school athletes who are showing out on the world stage.
The FIBA U17 World Cup is currently in progress and will be until July 7, and several Arkansas targets put on dazzling performances in Team USA's most recent game against France.
All told, Team USA has six athletes that Calipari has on his radar as targets to become future Razorbacks: Cayden and Cameron Boozer, AJ Dybantsa, Koa Peat, Chris Cenac and Tyran Stokes.
Most of those targets are in the class of 2025, aside from Stokes, who is in the class of 2026 and ranked No. 2 in the country.
The game itself wasn't particularly close. Team USA built up a 31-17 lead by the end of the first quarter, and it swelled to 18 in the second. France went on a run to cut it to nine, but that was as close as it got.
Team USA was able to extend its lead to 28 points in the fourth quarter and took home the win, 104-81.
Team USA was led in scoring by Cameron Boozer — one of two twin sons of two-time NBA All-Star Carlos Boozer — with 29 total points. Both Cameron and his brother Cayden played in the contest.
Team USA is next scheduled to play against China on Tuesday, July 2 at 1:30 p.m. CST. You can watch by clicking here.
HawgBeat takes a closer look at how each Arkansas target played in the game.
*Note: You can watch the game in full in the video player at the bottom of the page.*
Cameron Boozer
Rivals' No. 2 overall player in the 2025 class, Cameron Boozer was the driving force behind Team USA's win Saturday night. He played more than any other athlete on the team, logging 27 minutes and 14 seconds of action, and he was both the leading scorer and the leading rebounder.
Boozer finished the game with 29 points and 12 rebounds. Eighteen of his points came in the first half.
At 6-foot-9 and 225 pounds, Boozer got most of whatever he wanted down low, going 9-of-15 from field goal range. All of those came within the arc. He also finished 11-of-13 from the free throw line.
Cayden Boozer
Cayden didn't have as flash a game as his brother Cameron, but was still effective. He finished the game with just two points and four rebounds, but he led both teams with nine assists in the game, one of which was an inbounds play with his brother for a dunk.
The Miami (FL) native didn't attempt to shoot much, only attempting three shots in the game. It's clear his role was as a facilitator, and he did that job well.
Defensively, Cayden finished with three steals, which was tied for second with Brandon McCoy behind AJ Dybantsa's team-best five takeaways.
Chris Cenac
Cenac played the least amount of minutes among the Arkansas targets, as he only logged seven minutes and 30 seconds of game time. He finished the game with five points on 2-of-3 shooting, plus he added four rebounds and an assist.
Ranked the No. 15 player in the nation, Cenac is playing his final year of high school basketball at Link Year Prep in Branson, Missouri — the same school that produced former Razorback Jordan Walsh, who just won an NBA Championship with the Boston Celtics.
Koa Peat
Ranked the No. 6 player in the country, Peat ran down low and was a presence under the basket. He finished the game with 18 points and six rebounds, and shot 47.1% from the field on 8-of-17 shooting.
Most of Peat's scoring was done under the basket, with 15 of his 17 shots coming from inside the arc. Peat, a native of Gilbert, Arizona, dished out three assists and logged one steal in the game.
AJ Dybantsa
Dybantsa is the No. 1 player in the country for the 2025 class, and for good reason. He is every bit of 6-foot-8 and 200 pounds. His ball handling and explosiveness at that size makes him a formidable threat to score at will, which he mostly did for Team USA.
For the game, Dybantsa finished with 19 points, five rebounds, four assists and a team-leading five steals.
The Manti, Utah, native scored the first two points of the game for Team USA with a physical layup running the baseline. Not much later in the first quarter, Dybansta followed up a missed layup by Peat with a put-back dunk that pushed the Team USA run to 8-0.
In the win over France, he shot 63.6% from the field on 7-of-11 shooting and was 5-of-8 from the free throw line. His three-point shooting wasn't great, though, as he was 0-of-4 from long range, a far cry from the 39.3% he shot on the Nike EYBL 17U circuit.
Dybantsa was also active on the defensive end of the floor. He recorded five steals, the first of which came with 3:45 left in the first quarter. He got the steal from a bad pass and then lobbed the ball on the fastbreak to Peat for the slam.
Tyran Stokes
Tyran Stokes and Dybantsa were actually teammates at Prolific Prep before Dybantsa transferred to Utah Prep ahead of the 2024-2025 season, and they are now teammates again on Team USA.
Stokes, ranked the No. 2 player in the country in the class of 2026, played a total of 18 minutes and seven seconds, and he finished with 12 points on 3-of-8 shooting. The Napa, California, native was 1-of-4 from three-point range and 5-of-8 from the charity stripe. He finished the game with four rebounds and one steal.
