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March 20, 2006 • Mondeville, France
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The USA Basketball squad toured some of
the major D-Day sites in the Normandy area on Sunday, including Point
du Hoc, where Col. Rudder's 'Raiders' scaled the cliffs where the
Germans were positioned. (Photo:
USA Basketball) |
Featuring two Olympic gold medalists in Katie
Smith and Sheryl
Swoopes, four returnees from the USA's last tour in Alana
Beard, Chasity Melvin,
Nicole Ohlde and Smith,
and four additional players, the USA Basketball Women's National Team
tips-off its second European Tour tonight at 8:00 p.m. (2:00 p.m. ET)
in Mondeville, France.
This group of nine players, which also includes Kristin
Haynie, Taj
McWilliams-Franklin, Michelle
Snow and Kendra Wecker,
will hit the floor against USO Mondeville Basket knowing little about
their opponents.
"Tonight will be another great opportunity to evaluate a different
team," said USA head coach Anne
Donovan. "We'll get to see Alana Beard at the point, which we
really weren't able to do on the last trip. It'll be good to see where
we are in this next step. We have some return players from the first trip,
so to me it should be a little bit of a step from the last trip.
|
Sidebar ...
|
|
| Following practice on Sunday afternoon,
seven of the nine athletes and the entire USA Basketball staff went
on a historic journey into the past. The U.S. visited Piont du Hoc,
one of the first areas of attack for U.S. Armed Forces during Operation
Overlord's D-Day on June 6, 1944. The group also went to Omaha Beach
and to the largest American cemetary, where the remains of over 9,000
U.S. troops are buried. |
|
"As far as Mondeville tonight, we know they like to press. So off
a made or a missed shot we can expect a lot of pressure tonight. Either
full court or half court. Grace Daley is very athletic so given the way
she plays I think we're going to see a lot of zone from them, with trapping.
So how we handle that will be interesting. We haven't worked on a ton
of that so tonight will be a good test for us from that standpoint."
March 20 marks the first time that the USA has played USO
Mondeville, a team that advanced as far as the 2006 EuroLeague eighth
finals.
Mondeville features one American on its roster, Grace Daley, who averaged
14.9 ppg. to lead the team in scoring in 2005-06. Aurélie Bonnan
averaged a team second-best 11.8 ppg., while Emilija Podrug averaged 10.3
ppg.
Donovan is being assisted on the sidelines in Europe by
2006 USA World Championship assistant and WNBA Connecticut Sun head coach
Mike Thibault, the
only coach known to have served as a coach for a USA Basketball men's
and women's team.
| USO Mondeville
Basket Numerical Roster |
| NO |
NAME |
POS
|
HGT
|
DOB
|
HOMETOWN |
| - |
Ingrid Tanqueray |
G
|
5-6
|
08/25/88
|
Caen (FRA) |
| - |
Caroline Koechlin |
PG
|
5-7
|
04/20/80
|
Paris (FRA) |
| 4 |
Alimatou Mandiang |
F/C
|
6-2
|
01/04/87
|
Orleans (FRA) |
| 5 |
Marie Drouault |
G
|
5-10
|
12/07/87
|
Le Mans (FRA) |
| 6 |
Valine Labbe |
-
|
-
|
-
|
- |
| 7 |
Grace Daley |
G
|
5-8
|
06/26/78
|
FL (USA) |
| 8 |
No‚mie Lemaire |
G
|
5-10
|
03/21/87
|
Tours (FRA) |
| 9 |
Julie Legoupil |
G
|
5-9
|
12/27/84
|
Caen (FRA) |
| 10 |
Am‚lie Pochet |
G
|
5-11
|
02/22/84
|
Sarcelles (FRA) |
| 11 |
Ivanka Matic |
F/C
|
6-6
|
05/29/79
|
Vlasenica (BIH) |
| 12 |
Krissy Bade |
F
|
6-1
|
07/31/80
|
Paris (FRA) |
| 13 |
Emilija Podrug |
C
|
6-4
|
12/20/79
|
Split (CRO) |
| 14 |
Aur‚lie Bonnan |
F
|
6-3
|
08/01/83
|
La Teste de Buch (FRA) |
| 15 |
Pauline Jannault |
C
|
6-5
|
01/13/87
|
Ermont (FRA) |
| |
| Head Coach: Herv‚ Coudray |
| USO Mondeville
Basket's 2005-06 EuroLeague Statistics |
| Name |
G
|
Min
|
2PM/A
|
PCT
|
3PM/A
|
PCT
|
FT/A
|
PCT
|
O
|
D
|
TOT
|
As
|
PF
|
TO
|
St
|
B
|
Pts/AVG
|
| Daley, G. |
12
|
399
|
50/97
|
51.5
|
19/64
|
29.7
|
22/28
|
78.6
|
12
|
20
|
32
|
18
|
22
|
21
|
26
|
1
|
179/14.9
|
| Bonnan, A. |
12
|
328
|
51/103
|
49.5
|
3/25
|
12.0
|
30/47
|
63.8
|
27
|
58
|
85
|
21
|
33
|
26
|
16
|
3
|
141/11.8
|
| Podrug, E. |
12
|
374
|
43/97
|
44.3
|
4/10
|
40.0
|
26/33
|
78.8
|
15
|
53
|
68
|
20
|
26
|
33
|
25
|
3
|
124/10.3
|
| Bade, K. |
12
|
333
|
39/92
|
42.4
|
2/6
|
33.3
|
24/33
|
72.7
|
13
|
27
|
40
|
10
|
37
|
27
|
15
|
2
|
108/9.0
|
| Koechlin, C. |
10
|
323
|
11/35
|
31.4
|
16/42
|
38.1
|
12/18
|
66.7
|
5
|
20
|
25
|
61
|
12
|
30
|
16
|
0
|
82/8.2
|
| Matic, I. |
10
|
226
|
28/63
|
44.4
|
0/0
|
0.0
|
10/21
|
47.6
|
20
|
31
|
51
|
6
|
29
|
18
|
8
|
0
|
66/6.6
|
| Pochet, A. |
12
|
195
|
15/36
|
41.7
|
4/10
|
40.0
|
18/25
|
72.0
|
10
|
14
|
24
|
7
|
16
|
9
|
10
|
1
|
60/5.0
|
| Legoupil, J. |
12
|
187
|
3/23
|
13.0
|
12/30
|
40.0
|
4/8
|
50.0
|
6
|
17
|
23
|
16
|
24
|
13
|
9
|
1
|
46/3.8
|
| Jannault, P. |
5
|
21
|
0/3
|
0.0
|
1/1
|
100.0
|
0/0
|
0.0
|
0
|
3
|
3
|
0
|
1
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
3/0.6
|
| Lemaire, N. |
4
|
6
|
0/1
|
0.0
|
0/0
|
0.0
|
0/0
|
0.0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0/0.0
|
| Drouault, M. |
1
|
2
|
0/0
|
0.0
|
0/0
|
0.0
|
0/0
|
0.0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0/0.0
|
| TEAM |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
11
|
13
|
24
|
|
0
|
5
|
16
|
|
|
| TOTAL |
12
|
|
240/550
|
43.6
|
61/188
|
32.4
|
146/213
|
68.5
|
119
|
257
|
376
|
169
|
201
|
185
|
141
|
11
|
809
|
| AVERAGE |
|
|
20/46
|
|
5/16
|
|
12/18
|
|
10
|
21
|
31
|
14
|
17
|
15
|
12
|
1
|
67
|
|
