USA National Team Kicks-Off Coast-To-Coast 2007 College Tour With 90-73 Victory Over Maryland

Kara Lawson (Sacramento Monarchs) scored 17 points and dished out a game-high eight assists as the 2007-08 USA Basketball National Team (1-0) surged past No. 4 University of Maryland in the second half to take a 90-73 victory on Wednesday night at the Comcast Center in College Park, Md. In the first game of the USA's eight-game coast-to-coast 2007 College Tour, the USA also received 16 points from Seimone Augustus (Minnesota Lynx), Diana Taurasi (Phoenix Mercury) tossed in 15 points, while Lisa Leslie (Los Angeles Sparks), playing in her first game in over a year, grabbed a game-best 10 boards and contributed eight points.

'We are really excited to get this college tour off to a good start,' said USA and Seattle Storm head coach Anne Donovan. 'We felt like we had a really good second half. Every day we're going to get better, we have three new players, one of which is Lisa, that joined us after Russia. We're still trying to get chemistry and flow with our team and I really thought you could see that towards the end of the game. We played with good effort and, obviously, Maryland is a very talented team, they did a great job even with Crystal Langhorne not out there. They did a super job.'

Maryland held its own through the first half, behind 14 points from 2007 USA Basketball U21 World Championship Team gold medalist Laura Harper, as the U.S. owned a 40-38 edge. Featuring four lead changes and a pair of tied scores, the red, white and blue went up for good on a Lawson three (35-33) and never again trailed.

Holding a three-point, 42-39, lead early in the second half, the United States got into its groove. Scoring nine straight points to kick-off a 22-6 run, with 11 minutes remaining in the contest the U.S. was out in front 64-45 and never looked back.

The USA, which was outrebounded 40-34, committed just seven turnovers while forcing Maryland into 20.

The USA continues its 2007 College Tour with a homecoming for Swin Cash (Detroit Shock), Sue Bird (Seattle Storm) and Taurasi against the University of Connecticut in Storrs on Nov. 2 at 7:30 p.m. Heading south, the USA takes on defending NCAA champion University of Tennessee in Knoxville on Nov. 4 at 3:00 p.m., then battles Baylor University in Waco, Texas, on No. 6 at 7:00 p.m. On Nov. 8 the USA will meet Arizona State University in Tempe at 6:30 p.m., then returns to the Lone Star State for a Nov. 11 match-up against Texas A&M University in College Station at 6:00 p.m. Moving west to California for its final two games, Nov. 13 will see the USA pitted against the University of Southern California in Los Angeles at 7:00 p.m., and the USA concludes its tour on Nov. 15 at Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., at 7:00 p.m.

Donovan is being assisted by Connecticut Sun head coach Mike Thibault.