USA vs Australia update

The USA Basketball has repaired their website, and it's no longer listed as suspicious. Their game report reveals that yesterday's World University Games semifinal was more exciting than the WUG box score indicated.

The USA was down by four points with 4:53 minutes left in the first quarter. They called a timeout, during which Charli said something like, "... we came out, got a little run and then we let up. As a coach I don't understand that ..." The USA resumed play with a 25-0 run to the lead that Australia found insurmountable.

If you're really eager to know the outcome of the USA vs Russia game on Saturday, get up early — the game starts at 6:00 am Pacific time — and observe the as-it-happens results on WUG's daily schedule page for basketball on Saturday.

USA women advance to gold medal game

The USA defeated Australia in their semifinal game today. The USA led by 14 points at the end of the first quarter. Australia fought hard the rest of the game — they outscored the USA 26-22 in the fourth quarter — but couldn't overcome the early deficit. The final score was 81-66

The USA dominated in the paint, as they have done throughout these games. They outrebounded Australia 45-39; Tina Charles had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

Kayla had seven points and four rebounds. Jeanette had five points, three rebounds, three assists and just one turnover.

In the other semifinal today, Russia defeated the Czech Republic 107-64. The USA and Russia will play for the gold on Saturday.

Here is the box score from the World University Games.

I'm not linking to the game report from USA Basketball, because its website has apparently been hacked. Google warns that visiting the site may harm your computer. You can find more information about the problem here.

Nneka is on final USA U19 team

Featuring five athletes who helped the U.S. secure its berth to the 2009 FIBA U19 World Championship, USA Basketball today announced the 12-member 2009 USA U19 World Championship Team. As the two-time defending U19 World Championship gold medalists, the USA will attempt to make it three straight golds at the ’09 U19 Worlds, scheduled for July 23-Aug. 2 in Bangkok, Thailand. Read more...

Nneka is one of the five featured athletes who helped the USA claim the gold at the FIBA Americas U18 Championship last summer. Sarah would also be in that group, but she had to withdraw from the team a month ago because she had surgery for a stress fracture in her foot.

USA women crush Czech Republic

The USA's 115-78 defeat of the Czech Republic featured five players in double figures and a 51-21 rebounding advantage.

Kayla and Jeanette both started today. Kayla just missed a double-double with nine points (including five-of-five free throws) and the game-high 11 rebounds. Jeanette scored four points, and had three assists and three steals.

The victory advances the USA into the semi-finals as the #1 seed in their group. They have a day off tomorrow, then play #2-seeded Australia on Thursday. The other pair of semifinalists are Russia and the Czech Republic.

About advancing to the semifinals, Kayla said, "I’m really excited. This was our goal. We want to get to the gold medal game and the way we played today, we’re feeling very confident right now."

Here is the game report from USA Basketball, with links to the box score and more quotes. They haven't posted photos yet, but here is the gallery from the previous game against Poland.

Joslyn has another big game at Kezar

Joslyn, shown here after winning the Montana state championship, probably wasn't that excited about leading Bay Pride to an 81-66 victory over Golden State at Kezar last Saturday.

But Cardinal fans will be excited to know how well our incoming freshmen are playing. Joslyn had 29 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks. Mikaela had seven points and five rebounds.

Joslyn's performance gave Jake Curtis some ideas about how she may contribute to Stanford victories soon. Here is his game report.

USA Women remain undefeated

The USA women fought off a resilient Poland and remained undefeated with a 75-67 win today. Kayla and Jeanette each contributed nine points to the victory.

Jeanette started again. Her nine points came on three-of-four three-pointers. She also had four rebounds, three assists with just two turnovers, and a steal.

In addition to her scoring, Kayla had eight rebounds and an assist.

Poland was far from being a pushover. When asked if it was good to have a close game, Kayla said, "Yes. I’d like to blow every team out, but it does wake us up. It does make us more aware that it’s not just going to be a walk in the park. I think this will push us that much harder. Hopefully we can go through all the other teams better than tonight."

Here is the game report from USA Basketball, with links to the box score and more quotes.

Third win for USA women

The USA women defeated Serbia 84-50 yesterday and are 3-0 in the preliminary round.

There was a crowd of 1200 rooting for the home team, and it was a tougher game, as expected, than the first two. But the USA women continued their strong defensive play. They out-rebounded the Serbians 44-18 and held them to 36.7 % shooting.

Kayla was a starter for the first time. She played 19 minutes, scored two points and had four rebounds.

Jeanette perhaps didn't run the point in this game. She had no assists, but attempted and made two three-pointers. She also had three rebounds and a steal.

The USA advances to the second round as the top seed in their group of four and will play Poland (2-1) on Sunday.

Here is the game report from USA Basketball, with links to the box score and quotes. Here is photo gallery.

Stanford's top two women's basketball teams...

Jake Curtis' pick for #2 (1996-97) carries painful memories for Cardinal fans. This superstar team was marching steadfastly to the national championship, until they missed three shots in the last 17 seconds of overtime in That Dreadful Game against ODU.

His pick for #1, probably no surprise to anyone, is the 1989-90 team, the first Stanford team to win the national championship.

Second win in World University Games

The 2009 USA Women's World University Games Team ran away with a 93-59 victory over Great Britain on Thursday afternoon in Belgrade, Serbia.

The USA's size advantage was apparent from the start, and they finished with a 55-30 advantage on the boards and 48 points in the paint. Jantel Lavender said, "Just from watching them yesterday, I knew that we might have an advantage because they have one big post player, and we have five completely different looks that we can throw at that post player. So we knew that we could wear them down a little bit."

Kayla scored six points and had five rebounds, an assist and two steals. Jeanette had two points, four rebounds and two assists.

Here's the game report from USA Basketball, with links to the box score, some quotes and possibly a photo gallery.

Tomorrow the USA women will play against Serbia, the fourth member of their group. They expect this to be their toughest preliminary round game. Serbia has the home team advantage, and Coach Charli says, "They're the most talented team, besides us, in our bracket."

After that the 16 participating teams will be seeded based on the results of the preliminary round. The top two teams from each group of four will advance to play for 1st to 8th place on July 5-11. Here is the schedule and results.

USA Women cruise in first game

The 2009 USA Women's World University Games Team forced 44 turnovers and shot 56.1 percent from the field to cruise to an easy 85-point, 115-30 win over France in its first contest of the 2009 World University Games this morning.

France was outsized and overmatched by the U.S. squad. The U.S. dominated the glass, grabbing 48 rebounds to France's 21. Think what might have been if Jayne was still on the team!

Kayla contributed six points, four rebounds and two steals. She was a perfect 4-of-4 on free throws.

Jeanette did not attempt any field goals, but had a game-high five assists, grabbed four steals and sank two free throws.

Here is the game report from USA Basketball. It includes links to the box score, quotes from coach Charli and a few players, and a photo gallery.