that’s how we are looking at it. That’s why you play these games leading up to a competition, to see what you need to work on. And we definitely found out some things.”
USA 76, Czech Republic 41 The USA never trailed against host
Czech Republic and expanded its 10- point halftime lead to 24 points at the end of the third quarter before earning a 76-41 victory on Sept. 23 in Prague. Led by 16 points from Charles, the
game was the final exhibition contest for the U.S. squad before traveling to Istanbul, Turkey, for the 2014 FIBA World Championship. “The way the game against France
unfolded, our players were really disap- pointed,” said Auriemma. “They know that they are better than to let a game get away like that one got away from us. “We were so much better defensive-
ly tonight, even though the Czech team is much younger. And we shot the ball a little better. We played really well on defense, so I think it was a perfect way to end. It was a real confidence booster for our guys going over to Turkey.” Charles, who scored 10 of her 16
points in the first quarter, put up the game's first two points. Then, with the scored tied at four apiece, Bird hit a jumper at 5:34 to put the U.S. in the lead for good, 6-4. Charles then converted a 3-point play and Bird netted a 3-pointer in a 6-0 run, and as the first 10 minutes expired, the USA led 19-12. Starting the second quarter with an
8-4 run that included a pair of 3-pointers from Taurasi, who closed the night with eight points and three steals, the USA opened its largest lead of the first half, 27-15.
The Czechs outscored the USA 8-2
to close the gap to 29-23, however, the Americans closed the first half by netting 4-of-4 from the line to take the 10-point lead into the locker room. At halftime the USA was winning
the battle of the boards 23-18 and had an 8-5 steal and 5-1 blocked-shots advan- tage. The Czechs, however, had outscored the Americans 20-8 in the paint. Neither team had an easy time putting the ball in the bucket in the first half with the USA making 33.3 percent, while the Czech squad shot 32.4 percent.
USA Basketball News
Top: Angel McCoughtry aided the U.S. to gold and added a World Championship gold medal to her USA Basketball results. Above: The USA’s youngest player at just 20- years-old, Breanna Stewart averaged 7.0 points and 5.0 rebounds during the National Team tour.
That would change in the final 20
minutes of play. “I think we missed a lot of easy
shots in the first half, and that’s really what we addressed (at halftime),” said Bird. “We ran good offense, and we got good looks. And to be honest, and this is no disrespect to the Czech team, we probably could have been up by that
much in the first half had we made shots. So, we just talked about that, to really focus and make layups. We started to turn them over, and that turned into offense for us.” The USA came out for the second
half on fire, and in the decisive third quarter, outscored Czech Republic 22-8.
After each team scored four
apiece to bring the score to 37-27 at 6:38, the USA reeled off 10-straight points in an eventual 16-2 run to open up the game 53-29 at 1:12. The 10-0 run was spurred by the
USA’s defense, which forced two turnovers and five missed shots by the hosts. The Czech Republic was able to sink a pair of buckets during the remainder of the quarter, while the USA closed the first 30 minutes of play up 55-31. “I think we did a better job this
game than obviously in the previous game (against France),” said Nneka Ogwumike. “We played pretty well against Australia, too, and China we had three good quarters. So, I think today was more representative of what we want to do defensively. We limited
them to 23 points in the first half, and then they couldn’t double it in the second. So, I think definitely starting with defense, because obviously, we are not making a lot of shots. There were a lot of missed shots – open shots, but just not going in. And for us to rely on our defense is something that we want to put together for four quarters.” In the third quarter, the U.S. limited
the hosts to just 4-of-18 shooting and owned a decisive 15-3 rebounding advantage. The U.S. went on to outscore the
Czechs 21-10 in the fourth quarter to bring the game to its final. Nneka Ogwumike finished with 12
points and 10 rebounds, while Stewart scored nine. Charles grabbed seven boards, while Bird, who had seven points and dished out four assists, McCoughtry and Maya Moorehad six rebounds each. Whalen, who played five seasons in Prague, had a game-high five assists. The Americans finished the game shooting 43.0 percent (30-69 FGs) from the field and outrebounding the Czechs 51-28.
51
Ned Dishman/NBAE/Getty Images
Ned Dishman/NBAE/Getty Images
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