Additional Quotes >> USA 92, France 62

July 25, 2010 • Toulouse, France

Barbara Nelson
(USA and Wingate University head coach)
On tonight's game:
We knew France would come out and play hard. They had the crowd on their side. They had all the energy of playing at home, and because we had already beaten them, they could play very loose and just go for it. I'm proud of the intensity that we matched, and I'm just excited for the girls that we won.

Do you feel like this team improved over the course of the USA's training and the tournament?
They have just grown so much as a team and learning how to share the ball, be good screeners, play hard on both ends. All of these girls are the best players in their high schools, and they learned how to give up the 'me' for the 'we' and play for hard for the USA. I'm really proud of that.

Did you see growth off the court as well?
They just grew so much as far as their maturity and being able to travel. They wanted to be able to get to know kids from other countries, so they did a great job of reaching out and meeting other teams. The other thing that I'm really proud of these girls for is they never complained about things off the court. No matter where we were or what we did, they did their part. They were willing to do whatever we needed them to do.

Jordan Adams
(Mater Dei H.S./Irvine, CA)
On tonight's game:
France really put up a fight. It was really a good game for the entire 40 minutes, even in the end. They didn't give up.

How does it feel to win a gold medal?
Words can't even explain how it feels to win the gold medal. I'm just happy. All of our hard work paid off.

Do you feel like you grew either as a player or as a person over the course of the USA's training and the tournament?
I definitely feel like I have grown, especially getting through the adjustment of not being the only scorer and learning to share the shots and the scoring.

Cierra Burdick
(Butler H.S./Matthews, NC)
On tonight's game:
France gave us their best, and we thank them for that. This is the way we wanted to finish. We wanted to finish first, and we didn't want it to be a cupcake.

How does it feel to win a gold medal?
Words can't describe how I feel. It's unbelievable. All that hard work, all month long, sweat, tears, blood, it's all there at that podium, and it just felt great.

What was the most enjoyable part of this whole experience?
My favorite part was probably visiting the waterfall outside of Conques. That was pretty amazing. I've seen waterfalls, but I've never gotten in one, so that was great.

Bashaara Graves
(Clarksville H.S./Clarksville, TN)
How does it feel to win a gold medal?
I don't know how to describe it. It's crazy. I'm excited that we won, and it's just overwhelming.

Do you feel like you improved over the course of the USA's training and the tournament?
I think there was a lot of growth for me during this tournament. The rest of the post players helped me a lot, and I'm going to take a lot home with me in my post game. Off the court, I have new friends. I've known these people for a year now, since I played with most of them last year, and we are going to keep in touch and keep up our friendships.

Betnijah Laney
(Smryna H.S./Clayton, DE)
How does it feel to win a gold medal?
It is so cool, and it is just really exciting.

What was the most enjoyable part of this whole experience?
My favorite part of this experience was being able to spend all of our time together as a team. We all got along really well, and we had a lot of fun.

Do you feel like you improved over the course of the USA's training and the tournament?
This has helped me learn how to trust my teammates because I'm surrounded by 11 other people who all are capable of playing defense and scoring.

Kaleena Lewis
(Mater Dei H.S./Anaheim, CA)
How does it feel to win a gold medal?
It feels great to win a gold medal. Last year, it was great winning the zone qualifier, and this year it's even better. We started working for this last year, and to see it all the way through feels great.

Do you feel like this team grew over the course of the USA's training and the tournament?
There was a ton of growth in this team. Last year coach was talking about how we meshed well, but we didn't fully get into it. This year she talked about how we fully embraced it the whole experience. We listened to what they said, took it heart and we went out and did it. We executed, and it all paid off.

Jewell Loyd
(Niles West H.S./Lincolnwood, IL)
How does it feel to win a gold medal?
It was awesome. We all feel like a family. We've been together for a long time, so it was great. Now, we are all excited and ready to celebrate tonight.

What was the most enjoyable part of this whole experience?
The best part was off the court, hanging out, playing cards, everyone getting together and being a family on the court and off the court.

Ariel Massengale
(Bolingbrook H.S./Bolingbrook, IL)
On tonight's game:
France played really well. They came out with a lot of fire, but so did we. We just tried to match their intensity for 40 minutes, and I think towards the end of the game we wore them down.

How does it feel to win a gold medal?
Words cannot explain how I feel. It's just a great honor, and we are all blessed to have had this opportunity to do something like this.

What was the most enjoyable part of this whole experience?
Probably the friendships that we built and getting to know people from all different parts of the country. My teammates and I are going to be playing against each other for years to be come, and it was really great to become close and have that bond with certain people.

Bria Smith
(Christ the King H.S./Massapequa, NY)
How does it feel to win a gold medal?
It feels great. It feels like all of our hard work paid off. We finally did it, and I am so happy.

Do you feel like you improved over the course of the USA's training and the tournament?
I feel like I learned some new things on defense and offense that I didn't know before. I took this as a growing experience.

Imani Stafford
(Winward H.S./Los Angeles, CA)
How does it feel to win a gold medal?
I feel great. Not only did we just win a gold medal, but we are the first to women's U17 team to do it. We are not only the winner, but we are the first.

What was the most enjoyable part of this whole experience?
The best part is knowing that I haven't been out here for a month for nothing. We are going home with the gold.

Breanna Stewart
(Cicero-North Syracuse H.S./North Syracuse, NY)
On tonight's game:
It was a very hard-fought game. Like coach had told us, who ever played the best defense over the whole 40 minutes would win the game. We were executing the game plan the whole time, and it worked for us. We won.

How does it feel to win a gold medal?
It's awesome. I'm so excited right now. We won the U16 zone qualifier last summer, and that was wonderful, but this is even more exciting because this is a world championship.

What was the most enjoyable part of this whole experience?
My favorite part was playing against all of the different teams and just hanging out with them after words, learning new languages and trading shirts and all of that.

Morgan Tuck
(Bolingbrook H.S./Bolingbrook, IL)
On tonight's game:
We wanted to finish big, and I think it was a good game and we played really well. I've never played in front of a crowd that big before, but that was a great thing. The atmosphere was really loud and really alive. Coach talked to us at halftime, and told us we needed to pick it up, and we knew that we need to pick it up because they were going to play hard all game. We just needed to come out even harder and keep up our intensity the whole game.

How does it feel to win a gold medal?
It feels really good. This whole month, this is what we've been striving for. Everything we went through during training and losing a game in exhibition helped us get to the podium today.

What was the most enjoyable part of this whole experience?
The best part is being able to travel with people that you get along with. You build friendships that we are going to have forever, and I think that's the best part.

Elizabeth Williams
(Princess Anne H.S./Virginia Beach, VA)
On tonight's game:
We knew, especially with a big crowd, that France was going to be a dogfight, especially in the first half because they were going to get a lot of their energy straight from the crowd. It was something that we were expecting, and we just had to push through it. I think offensively we were more patient in the second half, and we didn't really let the crowd get to us to much, and then we definitely locked up defensively. We knew if we got stops, our offense would come to us.

How does it feel to win a gold medal?
I couldn't even describe the feeling. It's just amazing. It was an honor to be here, and to win a gold medal is just the best thing.

Do you feel like this team grew over the course of the USA's training and the tournament?
Definitely. This team grew all the way from when we started in Colorado. We've grown so much, and we bonded really well, on and off the court.