USA followed with six straight points, four of which came after back-to-back steals, and at 6:11 the Americans owned a 10-2 lead with all 10 coming in the paint. Japan cut the game to three points,
12-9, at 3:36, but the USA clamped down defensively, resulting in an 11-2 run to close the quarter up 23-11. After the USA’s lead expanded to
34-18 a little over three minutes into the second quarter, Japan held the American offense scoreless for almost the next three minutes, while putting up four straight points to close to 34-22 at 4:15. At that point Meier called for time
to refocus her team. Coming out of the timeout the USA went on a 15-4 scoring run to earn a comfortable 49-26 lead with under a minute to play before half. By the time the midway buzzer sounded, the USA was up 51-32. Japan hit a bucket 40 seconds into
the second half to make the score 51-34, but a 12-0 run in the paint, eight of which came from Tuck, put the game out of reach, 63-34, at the 6:00 mark. By the end of the third quarter
Wilson already had her double-double and the USA’s advantage was 81-46. The red, white and blue outscored
Japan 27-21 in the fourth to advance into the semifinals. Jones finished the night with seven
points and four assists. Also contributing in a big way to the record-setting rebounding effort was Stewart, who had 10 to go with four points and three assists. In addition to the 70 rebounds, 32 of
which came on the offensive end, the U.S. dished out 23 assists.
USA 77, Australia 54 Behind game-highs of 23 points and
eight rebounds from Stewart, the U.S. knocked off a strong Australia team 77-54. Stewart scored 14 points, including
the first nine, in a 21-0 run that capped the first half and virtually put the game away, 38-20. “Australia is just so good and they
have incredible half-court execution,” said Meier. “We were really struggling to score and we couldn’t. Therefore, we had to run back and play half court defense. The game was not going in our favor at all. As soon as we had an opportunity to throw in a little press and trapping action,
USA Basketball News
Stewart, who was wide-open for a 3- pointer.
Australia had no answer for the
USA’s well-oiled defensive machine and after a steal by Jefferson, which resulted in a Harper jumper, and another bucket from Stewart, Australia called a second timeout, trailing 30-20 with 2:13 remain- ing in the half. That didn’t change things or stop the
U.S., which got a 3-pointer from Stewart on its next possession. Following a Coffey steal and layup, Plum sunk a 3-pointer to send the red, white and blue into the midway break with a comfortable 38-20 advantage. “Obviously that second quarter, that
Guard Alexis Jones shared or led the team in assists in five of the USA’s nine games, and averaged a team high 4.3 assists, and added 10.0 points a game.
which requires scoring, once we were able to start scoring just a little, we were able to get into that.” In a first quarter that saw four knot-
ted scores, baskets were hard to come by. Neither team was able to easily convert on baskets, with Australia hitting 33.3 percent and the U.S. held to 27.7 percent. Holding a narrow 11-9 lead, the USA
sent Australia to the line at 1:53. Hitting both, the Aussies managed to hold the Americans scoreless and with six seconds left in the quarter, made good on a tradi- tional 3-point play to go up 14-11 at the end of the first stanza. With the U.S. leading 15-14,
Australia got a pair of layups to retake the lead, 18-15 at 8:23. Meier quickly called a timeout to regroup and neither team was able to score for nearly two minutes until Coffey went to the hoop to make it 18-17. But with 6:00 to play in the half, Australia answered to up its lead to three, 20-17. That’s about the time Stewart went to
work on a 9-0 run. She swished a pair from the line at 5:46 and Coffey found Stewart open and she hit a jumper to give the defending U19 champs a 21-20 lead and the U.S. never again trailed. Stewart took another feed from Coffey, then it was Harper’s turn to feed the hot hands of
was one of the most thrilling moments in coaching ever,” said Meier. “That run, that 21-0 run was just so hard earned. It didn’t come easy. They didn’t cough up the ball. Kids were covering and fighting and pursuing balls. It was really, really tough. We played very, very hard in that stretch.”
USA 77, Australia 54 July 27, 2013
USA
Stewart Tuck
Graves Harper Plum Green Turner Coffey Wilson Agee
Totals AUS
Jefferson 27 1- 6 0- 1 5 40 2 Jones
30 8-16 4- 5 8 11 23 25 3-11 3- 4 7 11 9 19 2- 4 1- 2 3 23 5 25 3- 8 0- 0 5 52 6 5 2- 3 0- 0 1 03 6 10 1- 3 0- 0 4 21 3 13 3- 3 0- 0 4 01 6 13 2- 3 0- 0 3 21 4 8 2- 5 0- 0 1 02 4 2 1- 2 1- 1 0 00 3 200 30-75 10-15 48 22 18 77
Panousis 23 3- 7 0- 0 3 22 7 Talbot
Mijovic 27 3-14 1- 2 3 20 7 Samuels 21 1- 6 0- 0 1 12 2 Garbin
Mangakahia 4 1- 2 0- 0 0 20 2 Wilson Brown Froling Scherf Tupaea Totals
21 3- 5 0- 0 3 00 6 24 4-14 1- 2 6 11 9
13 1- 3 0- 0 3 01 2 18 1- 5 1- 1 6 10 3 3 0- 0 0- 0 1 01 0 17 1- 1 3- 3 3 02 5 200 22-64 8-10 39 14 11 54
USA Australia
11 27 19 20 -- 77 14 6 17 17 -- 54
3-PT FGs-USA (7-16): Stewart 3-5, Plum 2-2, Jones, Alexis 1-4, Green 1-3, Jefferson 0-1, Tuck 0-1; Australia (2-13): Talbot 1-1, Panousis 1-3, Mijovic 0-1, Brown 0-1, Samuels 0-4, Wilson 0-3. TO-USA 13, Australia 19; BLKS-USA 5, Australia 2; STLS-USA 15, Australia 7.
55
MIN FG FT R A PF PTS 29 4- 7 2- 2 6 52 11
MIN FG FT R A PF PTS 23 2-11 1- 2 2 53 6
Caroline Williams/USA Basketball
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