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| Paving the way inside was rookie Sylvia Fowles with 20 points, 16 rebounds and three blocks. (Photo: USA Basketball) |
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- Fowles, Leslie Combine For 46 Points, 23 Rebounds As USA Scores 61 Points Inside --
The USA Basketball Women's National Team's (4-1) powerful post play scored 62 points in the paint to outscore China (4-1) overall as the USA downed the host country 86-61 on Thursday night at the 2008 Good Luck Beijing Tournament. Paving the way inside were three-time Olympic gold medalist Lisa Leslie (Los Angeles Sparks) with 26 points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots; and rookie Sylvia Fowles (Chicago Sky) with 20 points, 16 rebounds and three blocks. The USA and China will face off again on Saturday night (8:00 a.m. EDT) in the gold medal game, which will be televised live by NBA TV at 8:00 a.m. (EDT) and again at 4:00 p.m. (EDT).
In today's other games Cuba (3-2) defeated South Korea (1-4) 78-66, while New Zealand (1-4) earned its first victory after edging Australia (2-3) 63-59. Cuba and Australia will play in Saturday's bronze medal game, while South Korea will face New Zealand to determine fifth place.
"We knew we had to come in and play a good game," said USA head coach Anne Donovan. "We've seen China quite a bit and have been following their progress. We recognize that this is a very good team that's done a lot of training and has improved dramatically since 2004. We knew we needed to come in focused to get this win."
"Our posts really established a great presence inside," said Leslie. "Even though China is bigger than South Korea was, we still needed to get it inside and our team did a really good job of that. Overall our team defense was really what stood out to me. We listened to the strategies that Anne (Donovan) and the coaches gave us. We played their plays very well and really executed defensively."
The teams were evenly matched through much of the first half, which featured five lead changes and five knotted scores in 13 minutes of action. Then, with China holding on 30-29, Fowles took a feed from Katie Smith (Detroit Shock) to put the U.S. up for good, 31-30, with 6:43 remaining in the half. Leslie followed with a pair of buckets, and by the end of the first 20 minutes the USA owned an 8-point lead, 43-35.
China managed to snare the first four points coming out of the locker rooms, closing to 43-39 with 18:19 remaining in the contest. However, Leslie scored seven points during an 11-2 U.S. barrage that spanned four minutes and left the American women in control 54-41 at 4:21.
China's Dan Liu went to the line at 3:58 and sank both her shots. Fowles, who went to the bench in the first minute of the second half after being whistled for her third infraction, subbed in for Leslie and scored the USA's next two baskets down low to keep the momentum going, and by the end of the quarter the USA's lead was 63-48.
Leslie scored five points and Fowles added two to blow the game wide open at the start of the fourth quarter. By the time China got on the board at 8:26 to make it 70-50, the only thing in doubt was the game's final score.
Donovan was able to rest her starters during most of the fourth quarter, and her bench didn't miss a beat. Keeping the intensity level high, the USA closed the game on a 10-1 run for the 25-point victory.
"We have two of the best post players in the world in Lisa Leslie and a newcomer in Sylvia Fowles," said Swin Cash (Seattle Storm), who contributed five points and five rebounds. "It's amazing to watch them. They're both very gifted and talented. And then some of our younger post players came into the game and really established themselves. They worked really hard inside. We gave a lot of credit to the Chinese post players as well because they were being physical with us. But at the end of the day Sylvia and Lisa have an array of moves, and they’re very talented post players.”
Lindsey Harding (Minnesota Lynx), who passed out eight assists, strained her left knee on the final play in the third quarter, didn’t return to the game and her status is day-to-day.
Every player who checked into the game contributed points, including Kara Lawson (Sacramento Monarchs) and Taj McWilliams-Franklin (Washington Mystics) who notched eight points apiece.
China’s Lan Bian and Xiaoli Chen scored 14 and 13 points, respectively.
On April 26 FIBA, the International Basketball Federation, will host the 2008 Olympic draw (5:30 a.m. EDT) at the Wukesong Arena between the bronze (3:15 a.m. EDT) and gold medal (8:00 a.m EDT) games.
Donovan is being assisted on the sidelines by collegiate head coaches Gail Goestenkors of the University of Texas and Temple University’s Dawn Staley. USA assistant coach Mike Thibault (Connecticut Sun) aided in the team’s pre-Beijing training camp but was unable to join the team in China due to his WNBA coaching duties.
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