July 19, 2003

BOSTON (July 19, 2003) -- The USA World Championship For Young Women Team (3-0) utilized a second half attack that featured a combined 24 points from Alana Beard (Duke / Shreveport, La.) and Caity Matter (Ohio State / Bluffton, Ohio), to defeat a feisty Brazilian squad 74-62 on Saturday afternoon. The game, played at Matthews Arena in Boston, upped the USA's exhibition record to 3-0, while Brazil (1-2), which defeated Australia 89-81 on July 17, fell to 1-2. Matter finished the contest with 17 points, while Beard had 16. In today's second contest, the USA Basketball Women's Pan American Games Team fell to Australia 78-70.

"When you've been together for less than two weeks, you're going to be spotty," said USA and Ohio State University head coach Jim Foster. "But the intensity was pretty consistent and the offense, once we got into a flow, we did some very good things in the second half. We executed and played good basketball."

"They played a little bit of a zone and we were working the ball a little bit better in the second half so I got some good shots," said Matter. "I hadn't been shooting the ball really well, but I kind of got in a rhythm today and my teammates were getting me the ball. I don't think we played really well in the first half, but we showed a lot more intensity, especially on defense, in the second half and that helped us out a lot.

"Brazil is good," continued Matter. "This is really good for us. We've been together almost two weeks and we're playing against some of the top teams in the world in Brazil and Australia. So each time that we play them, we get more experience playing together and that's only going to make us better."

Receiving points from five different players, the United States jumped out to an 11-2 lead before the game was five minutes old. Following a Brazilian field goal at 5:05, the North Americans went on a 7-0 run and owned an 18-4 lead with 2:33 to go in the first period. However, Brazil's offense came to life, scoring the final four points of the first quarter (18-10) and opened the second with a 6-2 run to pull within four points, 20-16, at 6:42. The nations swapped baskets for the remainder of the half and at the midway buzzer the USA held onto its four point lead, 28-24.

Brazil began chipping away at the gap and by 7:25, the score was knotted at 33-apiece. At 5:49 Brazil took the lead, 36-35, on a 3-pointer. The score see-sawed back and forth and with 1:02 to go in the third Graziane Coelho completed an old-fashioned three-point play to put Brazil up by one, 44-43. Neither team was able to score in the final minute until, with six seconds to go, Matter nailed one of her game high five 3-pointers to give the North Americans the lead for good, 46-44.

Beard and Matter combined for 16 points in the fourth quarter, but the U.S. could not shake Brazil and with 6:12 left in the game, the USA held a slim margin, 55-52. Beard drove the lane for a pair of consecutive layups, followed up by a Beard steal and assist to Cappie Pondexter (Rutgers / Chicago, Ill.), and another assist for a Matter 3-pointer, sparking an 11-0 red, white and blue surge. The run, which ended at 3:23 with the U.S. holding its largest lead of the game (69-55), was aided by a ferocious defense that forced three turnovers and a pair of missed shots. Brazil never again seriously threatened and the North Americans collected the eventual 74-62 victory.

"I absolutely stunk in the first half," said Beard. "When I have a first half like that I know I have to come back out in the second half and just play. I need to get over my mistakes and move on. I think I played pretty well in the second half, but I'm not satisfied with it. I feel like I disappointed my team because I should be able to play both halves well. But overall I thought the team played pretty well. When we put our minds to it and when we play as a team, we're unstoppable. This is a very unselfish team and that's what I like about it. We just need to set our minds to playing basketball instead of thinking too much."

In addition to the 17 and 16 points from Matter and Beard, the USA was aided by 10 points from Nicole Ohlde (Kansas State / Clay Center, Kan.), while Pondexter and Temeka Johnson (Louisiana State / Kenner, La.) passed off for four assists each, Kendra Wecker (Kansas State / Marysville, Kan.) nabbed four of the USA's 11 steals and Shawntinice Polk (Arizona / Hanford, Calif.) grabbed a team high six rebounds.

"We competed really well," said Ohlde. "Brazil came out and played really tough, but we got a lead on them and they weren't going to back down. They came out and continued to fight, tried to come back. But we just held together and did a lot of things really well. But there are still a lot of things we need to get better at before we go over to Croatia."

Coelho scored a game high 23 points on 10-of-13 shooting from the field and grabbed a game high eight rebounds.

"I thought (Brazil was) a very good team the first day we played them," commented Foster. "If you watched them handle Australia the other day, that just confirmed that they're a pretty good basketball team. They're very strong. Very, very strong physically."

The first half saw the Brazilians outrebound the U.S. 28-12, as the USA shot 36.7 percent from the field (11-30 FGs), compared to Brazil's 40.7 percent (11-27 Fgs). However, the USA posted a 20-13 advantage on the glass in the second half and finished the game shooting 46.8 percent from the field (29-62 Fgs).

Lindsay Whalen (Minnesota / Hutchinson, Minn.) suffered a moderate left ankle sprain early in the USA's July 16 game against Australia and is listed as day-to-day.

Foster is being assisted by collegiate head coaches Kathy Delaney-Smith of Harvard University (Mass.) and Felisha Legette-Jack of Hofstra University (N.Y.).

The series of 'friendlies' concludes July 20 with a double-header featuring the USA Pan Am Games Team competing against Brazil at 1:00 p.m., followed by the USA Young Women against Australia.