Kayla and the U19 team still winning

USA U19 won the first of three Second Round games, 113 - 69 against South Korea. That makes 7 consecutive wins, including the exhibition series. Kayla had 6 rebounds and 2 points in 14 minutes of play.

Here's the story and the box score.

They will play the second of three Second Round games tomorrow against Spain and the third on Wednesday against Slovakia.

Kayla and the U19 team win third game

USA U19 had a third blowout game, this one 90 - 50 against Lithuania. This was not a big game for Kayla -- she had 2 rebounds and 2 points.

Here's the story and the box score.

This completes the Preliminary Round. The team has tomorrow off, then will play South Korea in the Second Round on Monday.

Another blowout for Kayla and the U19 team

USA U19 had another blowout game, this one 101 - 60 against China. Kayla played 11 minutes and scored 10 points, one of five players in double digits.

Here's the story and the box score.

Tomorrow's game is against Lithuania

Kayla and the U19 team

Well, the first game was easy. The USA defeated the Ivory Coast 95 - 25. Kayla contributed one rebound or point per minute -- 7 of each in 14 minutes.

Here's the story and the box score.

Tomorrow's game is against China.

Another gold medal for Candice and Jayne

The USA won the gold medal at the Pan American games, defeating Brazil in Rio de Janeiro 79-66 before a crowd of 13,200 Brazilian fans. Candice said, "...there's no feeling like beating a country in their own country. It's kind of overwhelming, it's starting to hit me what we accomplished."

This is the second gold medal for Candice this season and the second for Jayne in her young career (she was on the USA U18 team that won the gold last summer).

Here is the story and the box score of the gold medal game. The USA Basketball website has links to the story and box score of each USA game in the tournament.

USA U19 sweeps their exhibition series

The USA U19 team swept their exhibition series that preceded the U19 tournament. Here are the stories of those three games:

• Against Australia, won 64-62
• Against Brazil, won 90-75
• Against Spain, won 79-71

The U19 tournament begins tomorrow in Slovakia. The USA's first game is against the Ivory Coast. Here is the complete schedule.

Before leaving for Slovakia, the team spent an evening in Vienna. This is a photo of Kayla with her teammates Angie Bjorklund, Maya Moore and Amy Jaeschke.

Here are more pictures

Pan Am and U19 results

In their first game of the preliminary round of the Pan American games, the USA trounced Colombia 95-41. Candice scored 10 points, one of five USA players who scored in double digits. Jayne led the defense with 4 blocked shots and 7 rebounds. Here's the story and the box score.

USA U19 squeaked past Australia 64-62 in their first of three exhibition games. Jantel Lavender made the winning shot with 0.6 seconds left. Kayla did not get much playing time. Here's the story and the box score.

Candice lives and breathes for basketball

Jeff Lippman of CSTV.com interviewed Candice in regard to her playing in both the U21 World Tournament and the Pan American Games. Candice said, "I live and breathe for basketball. It is who I am. It is a huge part of my life and it has helped me become the person I am. I just love it."

Here is the complete interview.

Kayla makes the final cut for USA U19

Kayla is one of the twelve members of the official 2007 USA Basketball Women's U19 World Championship team.

The team will depart for Spain tomorrow, where they'll play exhibition games against Australia, Brazil and Spain. They'll play their first game of the championship series in Bratislava, Slovakia on July 26 against the Ivory Coast.

You can find more information here:

• The announcement from USA Basketball
• The USA team roster
• Kayla's USA Basketball profile

Candice and Jayne are flying down to Rio

USA Basketball today announced the official, 12-member 2007 USA Women’s Pan American Games roster, and Candice and Jayne both made it!

The squad is training in Washington D.C. and will depart for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on July 16th. The tournament is July 20-24th. It features eight national teams from North, South, Central Americas and the Caribbean. The USA's first game is against Columbia.

Here is the complete announcement, the roster, the USA Basketball tournament website, and the FIBA tournament website.

USA U21 and Candice win the gold

Here's the story
... and a quote from Candice
... and from each of the other players and coaches
... and the box score for the gold medal game
... and the cumulative statistics for the series
... and photos of the award ceremony and the game.
... and finally more photos from USA Basketball, including this one of Candice & Coach Charli:

USA U21 and Candice advance to championship game

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.

Unfortunately, none of this action is televised. However, the FIBA website has a Gametracker, so you can [sort of] watch the games.