USA Basketball Women’s National Team Finishes 4-1 In Exhibition Tour While Gaining Critical Training Time
advantage of what it had, and while gaining experience and jelling as a team, the USA finished its tour with a 4-1 mark. The USA National Team
W
recorded wins over Canada (76-51), Australia (72-66) and China (99-75), suffered a loss to France (76-72) and wrapped its tour with a win over Czech Republic (76-41).
USA Red 95, USA White 87
Lindsay Whalen (Minnesota
Lynx) scored 17 points and had 10 assists to lead the USA Red team to a 95-87 win in the USA Basketball Women’s National Team Red-White intrasquad exhibition game on Sept. 11 at the University of Delaware.
Credited with 9.3 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists a game, Lindsay Whalen collected a second World Championship gold medal.
USA 76, Canada 51 Nnemkadi Ogwumike (Los Angeles
Sparks) paced the White team with a game-high 26 points.
Lindsay Whalen (Minnesota Lynx)
hit a jumper to break a 76-76 tie in the fourth quarter before Kayla McBride (San Antonio Stars) followed by nailing a three on the next possession for a five- point lead. Whalen then buried another jumper from almost the identical spot and, after another stop on defense, Maya Moore (Minnesota Lynx) broke through the lane for a layup and an 85-76 lead with 3:19 remaining.
The White team never led until Tina
Charles (New York Liberty) scored with 1:49 left in the third quarter to put it on top 61-59.
Jantel Lavender (Los Angeles
Sparks) netted six points in the game’s first five minutes as the Red team opened up a 14-2 lead. Skylar Diggins (Tulsa Shock) stopped the run with an open 3 for the White team.
Charles’ bucket with 6:08 left in the
half tied the game at 23-23. Lavender answered with a layup off a pick-and-roll to spark another run by the Red team to
USA Basketball News After starting sluggish and leading
Canada by only two buckets at halftime, the USA hit the floor in a whole different gear in the third quarter, going on a 13-0 rally to outscore Canada 22-10 in the period and roll to a 76-51 win.
Nneka Ogwumike was the high
scorer for the U.S. with 10 points while Odyssey Sims (Tulsa Shock) and Breanna Stewart (University of Connecticut) added nine each in a bal- anced offensive attack.
The basketball crazy Bridgeport,
Connecticut, crowd was the perfect sendoff, and Auriemma indulged the approximately 7,500 in attendance by posing with his Husky progeny in Sue Bird (Seattle Storm), Moore, Charles, Stefanie Dolson (Washington Mystics) and Stewart, plus incoming freshman guard Kia Nurse of Canada.
“Usually what wears teams down is
our depth,” said Bird. “I think over the course of game, when we are constantly subbing and throwing fresh legs at you, it’s hard to play only seven or eight people. So that is generally our biggest advantage.”
ith training time as a unit short, the USA Women’s National Team took full
give it a 41-37 advantage at the break. McBride and Lavender each had 12
points for the Red while Chiney Ogwumike (Connecticut Sun) chipped in 10.
USA 72, Australia 66 The USA, which led by just one
point at halftime, 28-27, pulled away with a 9-0 run late in the third quarter for a 72-66 win over Australia in its first of three games in the 2014 France International Tournament in Paris, France. All 15 U.S. players saw at
least eight minutes of playing time, all 15 put points on the board and the USA recorded 19 assists on its 30 made field goals. “We’re kind of in a little bit of
a quandary,” said Auriemma. “We obviously want to win the game, which is priority No. 1. But it’s a little unusual that priority No. 1-A is trying to get 15 players somewhat significant playing time as opposed to garbage time. So there’s no offensive flow, it’s tough on defense and we looked like it at times. But we’re trying to
put our team together. We’re trying to find the right combination for everybody, and it’s important that we do that.” Stewart led the USA with nine
points, while Seimone Augustus (Minnesota Lynx), Moore and Nneka Ogwumike each finished with seven points. Moore and Nneka Ogwumike also each grabbed six rebounds, and Taurasi dished out six assists. Helped by nine points in the period
from 6-foot-8 Liz Cambage, Australia led 18-11 at the first break as the USA made just 5-for-21 from the field in the first quarter and was outrebounded 15-12. The USA got a break when
Australia’s biggest threat, Cambage, went to the bench early in the second period favoring her right ankle and did not return to the game. Australia was up by four points,
23-19, at 6:25 when a score from Lavender kicked off a 9-0 U.S. run that included a 3-pointer from McBride. Australia, however, closed the first half with four-straight points and trailed by just one point at halftime, 28-27. The lead changed hands six times in third quarter before the USA began to
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Ned Dishman/NBAE/Getty Images
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