The USA team, with considerable help from Candice, swept their preliminary round of the FIBA U21 World Championship for Women.
That, of course, put them at the top of their group, at 5/0. Australia was second, at 4/1. They lost only to the USA in an extremely hard-fought game. Australia led most of the game, by as much as 16 points, until the USA snatched the proverbial victory from the jaws of defeat with a 3-pointer from Candice with 48 seconds left.
In the other group, France was 5/0 and Russia was 4/1, losing only to France. That was a very close game, with a small lead changing sides throughout the game. With 40 seconds to go, France took the lead with a layup. But then they (Oh no!!) fouled Russia. Russia made both free throws, so the score was again tied with 25 seconds to go. France called a timeout, and came back and scored the winning goal at 00:05.
In the quarterfinals, Russia defeated Hungary 71-55, and the USA defeated Belgium 104-53. Courtney Paris had the big game this time (18 pts, 10 reb), her first double-double of the series. She's not as dominant a member of the USA team as she is at home.
The USA defeated Russia in the semifinal 86-61. Russian started out strong and took a 13-0 lead before Candice hit a 3-pointer. With 3 minutes to go in the 1st quarter, the USA started a 20-0 run, and dominated the rest of the game. They ended the half up by 15, started the second half with two 3-pointers from Candice, and ended the 3rd quarter up by 26. This was Candice's turn to shine. She ended with 27 points, including four 3-pointers.
Here is information about those USA games, with links to story, box score and photo gallery.
And here is the cumulative box score.
Australia defeated France 88-81 in the other semifinal.
Still to come:
- The Gold medal game on Sunday July 8th, at 7:00 a.m. PDT, USA vs Australia -- should be a very interesting rematch.
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