The low-post dominance continued for Rakeem Christmas on Saturday during a 73-69 squeaker by USA East over Brazil (Fab Melo’s rooting interests were torn, I’m sure). Christmas swatted four shots in 12 minutes and added four points, but as was the case Friday, his playing time was abbreviated by foul trouble. You can see one of his blocks at the 0:36 mark of the video here.

Trevor Cooney had a nice game, making a living from beyond the arc. He sank three of eight three-pointers while going 4-10 from the floor. Showing ability on the defensive end as well, Cooney chipped in four thefts.

The Nike Global Challenge may be filled with international teams, but at least for the Americans, make no mistake – this is about showcasing individual talents, while team play is disjointed. With that in mind, as much as can be taken from these kinds of events, Cooney has been steady, while Christmas seems to be embracing contact on defense. Then again, these guys have a whole year ahead of them before they get to SU, so it will be exciting to see what kind of progress they make.

Friday was an exciting day for SU fans with the announcement of Rakeem Christmas’ impending arrival on campus. Christmas rounds out SU’s class of 2011 with the nearly perfect balance across the board of a center, point guard and shooting guard. All three are in Hillsboro, Oregon (a stone’s throw from Nike Mecca, better known as Beaverton) this weekend participating in the Nike Global Challenge, a competition of international amateur talent.

The event kicked off Friday afternoon, and Trevor Cooney and Christmas’ USA East squad lost a close double-overtime game to Team Canada. Cooney played most of the game and tallied 14 points on 4-18 shooting, including a shaky 3-14 performance from three, and added two steals. Christmas only saw 19 minutes of court time but managed to foul out, though he rejected a team-high six shots in that time  and scored six points.

Also in action was Michael Carter-Williams, playing for the USA Midwest team. They coasted to a 127-86 victory over Team Asia. Like Christmas, MCW didn’t get a ton of playing time (just 18 minutes in a 40-minute game), but made the most of it. His line includes nine points on 4-9 shooting, including a three, and five assists to boot . For an in-depth look at how day one shook out, check out Oregon Live, which had staff live-blogging throughout the day.