added 13 points and collected three steals, Parker finished with 11 points and 13 rebounds and Catchings rounded out the USA’s double- digit scorers
with 10 points. “Playing in the
Diana Taurasi captured her third Olympic gold medal in 2012 and led the U.S. in scoring averaging 12.4 points a game.
competition is, we know how good these other teams are and we know how hard we have to work to make it look easy, because it’s not as easy as it looks. We do what we do in the United States, and we take great pride in our basketball program. It doesn’t matter who the coach is, it doesn’t matter who the players are, there’s a certain level of expectation when you coach and play for USA Basketball. That expectation is to win, and we take it very seriously.”
USA 81, Croatia 56 A 16-0 run in the fourth quarter
helped the U.S. overcome its shooting woes and finally put away Croatia for an 81-56 win in its first game of the 2012 Olympics at the Olympic Park Basketball Arena in London. Charles scored 14 points and
grabbed 10 rebounds, while McCoughtry USA Basketball News
Olympics is com- pletely different than playing in any other competition,” said Auriemma. “We had an opportunity at the beginning of the game when Croatia had a very difficult time scoring. We had an opportunity there to really open a big lead and we didn’t take advantage of that. Like a good team, Croatia came back and actually ended up taking the lead against us. I think that’s to be expect- ed at these games. You don’t go into
any game thinking you’re (going to win because you’re) the United States or just because you’re ranked No. 1 in the world and somebody else isn’t. So, we’re not surprised at all by how well Croatia played. We’re not surprised at all about the fact that it was a close game for 30- some minutes. But, we got better as the game went on.”
The USA struggled from the field in
the win, shooting 44.4 percent (32-72 FGs), as did Croatia, which shot just 33.3 percent for the game (23-69 FGs).
The USA’s size and strength were
a great advantage as the Americans outrebounded Croatia 57-32, compiled 46 points in the paint to Croatia’s 24 and tallied 27 second-chance points to Croatia’s eight.
While the USA opened an icy 5-of-
16 from the field (.313) in the first quarter, Croatia made just 2-of-19 (.105)
of its shots, and the USA held Croatia scoreless for the first eight minutes. With a free throw from Whalen at 3:35, the USA led 9-0, and after two scores in the last two minutes from Croatia, the score was 11-4 at the first break.
The U.S. lead reached 12 points,
19-7, after Parker scored off an offensive rebound. From there, however, Croatia launched a 14-0 run, its largest of the game, that included three 3-pointers to take a 23-21 lead with 4:43 left before halftime.
Catchings pulled up for two points
to end the onslaught, and then Taurasi sank back-to-back 3-pointers to put the USA ahead 29-26. The three-point mar- gin lasted through to the halftime buzzer, and the USA headed to the locker room leading 31-28. The USA’s shooting improved in the
second quarter to 45.0 percent (9-20 FGs), while Croatia heated up to 50.0 percent (9-18 FGs) in the second 10 minutes. “I think for us, the jitters of finally getting here, for both sides it’s the first
USA 81, Croatia 56 July 28, 2012
CRO
Mandir 27 1- 4 0- 0 214 3 Jelavic Lelas
Ivankovic 21 3- 5 0- 0 724 7 Ivezic Karcic
30 1-13 0- 0 651 2 39 9-17 0- 0 324 22
12 0- 3 0- 0 400 0
Salopek 12 0- 1 0- 0 013 0 Vrsaljko 20 8-11 3- 3 221 19 Ciglar
20 1- 7 1- 2 043 3
Totals 200 23-69 4- 5 32 19 21 56 USA
Bird
Catchings 22 4- 9 2- 5 521 10 Taurasi 27 3- 8 0- 0 330 8 Charles 25 5-11 4- 6 10 22 14 Parker
24 4-11 3- 4 13 12 11
Whalen 19 4- 5 1- 2 220 9 Augustus 18 1- 8 0- 0 410 2 Moore
McCoughtry 11 5- 6 3- 4 300 13 Cash
11 2- 4 0- 0 524 4 5 1- 1 1- 1 101 3
Fowles
Croatia USA
10 1- 3 0- 0 302 2
Jones DNP Totals 200 32-72 14-22 57 18 14 81
4 24 19 9 -- 56 11 20 22 28 -- 81
3PT FGs-Croatia (6-24): Ivezic 4-8, Mandir 1-3, Ivankovic 1-2, Lelas 0-4, Ciglar 0-4, Jelavic 0-2, Karcic 0-1; USA (3-11) Taurasi 2-6, Bird 1-3, Catchings 0-2; TO-USA 21, Croatia 18; BLKS- USA 6, Croatia 2; STLS-USA 8, Croatia 7.
45
MIN FG FT R A PF PTS 28 2- 6 0- 0 252 5
MIN FG FT R A PF PTS 19 0- 8 0- 0 421 0
Garrett Ellwood/NBAE/Getty Images
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