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“We have said all along we want to keep at it to keep getting better every game and keep improving and I think we have. I think from the first game against Croatia to now we are a much better team.”


USA Head Coach Geno Auriemma


U.S. Olympic Women’s Basketball Team. Featuring an amazing collection of basketball talents that included experienced veterans and young guns, the U.S. steamrolled all comers and only one opponent was able to keep the USA’s winning margin to less than 25 points.


E In capturing its unprecedented fifth-


straight Olympic gold (dating back to 1996), a feat never before accomplished in any women’s traditional team sport, the USA women extended their amazing Olympic winning streak that began with the 1992 bronze medal game to 41 games.


Led by the heartbeat of the team, tri-


captains and three-time Olympic gold medalists Sue Bird (Seattle Storm), Tamika Catchings (Indiana Fever), and Diana Taurasi (Phoenix Mercury), the U.S. left no doubt in anyone’s mind that it was the best team in the tournament.


Just how dominant was the ‘12 squad


that went 8-0 and upped the USA’s Olympic gold medal count to seven of the last eight Olympic Games? Consider this: in scoring an average of 90.6 points a game and limiting opponents to just 56.2 points, the USA’s scoring margin of +34.4 points was far and beyond better than the next team’s scoring margin. Australia, which claimed the bronze and ranked


44


xpectations can be a difficult thing to live with, but that wasn’t the case for the 2012


2012 SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES Unstoppable!


No Stopping USA Women As Team Storms To Remarkable Fifth Straight Olympic Gold


The 2012 U.S. Olympic Women’s Team made it five straight Olympic gold medals for the Americans as they rolled to a perfect 8-0 record in London and did so defeating their opponents by 34.4 points a game.


second in this category, owned a slim +5.2 scoring margin over opponents.


The American squad won its eight


games by 25, 52, 30, 27, 48, 43, 13 and 26 points. In all, the USA sat atop nearly every


major statistical category. In addition to scoring, it was No. 1 in field goal percentage, defensive field goal percent- age, rebounding, defensive rebounding, rebounding margin, blocked shots, assists, steals and assist-to-turnover ratio. Individually, the well-rounded effort


saw 10 players average between 6.0 and 12.4 points a game and every player averaged fewer than 25 minutes a contest. Led by University of Connecticut


head coach Geno Auriemma, DePaul University head coach Doug Bruno, 1988 Olympic gold medalist and Washington Mystics assistant coach Jen Gillom, and Atlanta Dream head coach Marynell


Meadors rounded out the coaching staff. The U.S. women’s team featured:


Seimone Augustus (Minnesota Lynx), Bird, Swin Cash (Chicago Sky), Catchings, Tina Charles (Connecticut Sun), Sylvia Fowles (Chicago Sky), Asjha Jones (Connecticut Sun), Angel McCoughtry (Atlanta Dream), Maya Moore (Minnesota Lynx), Candace Parker (Los Angeles Sparks), Taurasi and Lindsay Whalen (Minnesota Lynx). The gold medal was the third for


Bird, Taurasi and Catchings; while Augustus, Cash, Fowles and Parker earned a second Olympic gold medal; and Charles, Jones, McCoughtry, Moore and Whalen won their first Olympic gold medal.


“...you can’t apologize for being


really good,” said Auriemma about the perception of it being easy for the USA women to win gold. “We know what the


USA Basketball News


Jesse D. Garrabrant / NBAE


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