July 23, 2009

Spain stops USA's winning run

The USA U19 team got a painful wakeup call from Spain, who defeated them 90-86 in the preliminary rounds of the 2009 FIBA World Championship. This was the USA U19 first defeat in eight years.

Nneka scored the team-high 16 points on 63.6% shooting and had eight rebounds. This and her teammates' efforts weren't enough to overcome the determined Spaniards, who went on a 15-1 run in the first quarter.

Here is the game report from FIBA, with statistics and photos.

Here is a more detailed game report from USA Basketball, with quotes from players. Nneka thinks that a lot of their problems today were due to poor communication. "... we're all in the same book, we're just not on the same page. That's a problem that can easily be fixed."

The USA plays its second of three preliminary round games tomorrow against China, who won their first game against Mali 86-60. If you're awake at 5:45 am tomorrow morning, you can follow the game at FIBA Live Statistics

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