June 29, 2007

Moscow, Russia -

Box Score
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Never giving up, despite falling into an early double-digit deficit, the USA Basketball Women's U21 World Championship Team (1-0) tipped-off play Friday morning at the 2007 FIBA U21 World Championship with a hard-fought 90-88 victory over Australia (0-1) in Moscow, Russia. Auburn rising junior DeWanna Bonner grabbed five rebounds in the victory.

"There was a lack of readiness on our team's part," said USA U21 National Team and Duke University head coach Joanna P. McCallie. "You're excited to play, but being excited to play doesn't mean you're ready to play. We just weren't quite ready. Looking at the fourth quarter, you have to give credit to our team, that's a 27-18 run, that was an extremely dominant fourth quarter and that was the difference in the game."

The U.S., which took its first lead of the game with less than two minutes remaining, lagged by 16 points (27-011) eight minutes into the contest. By halftime the USA had cut it to 44-35 and with 10 minutes to play it was a seven-point, 70-63, game.

By the 6:02 mark the gap had narrowed to 79-73 and the U.S. was gaining momentum. Jolene Anderson (Wisconsin) scored on an offensive rebound, followed by another Crystal Langhorne (Maryland) put-back and with 4:28 remaining the USA trailed by just two points, 79-77. However, each time the USA attempted to pull ahead Australia countered and with the clock showing 2:51 the Sapphires had upped their lead to five, 85-80.

The USA refused to give up and as Candice Wiggins (Stanford) scored five points in a 7-0 run, the USA's defense began to stifle Australia into turnovers and poor shots. With 1:26 to play Wiggins was fouled from the top of the key and converted the 3-point play to give the red, white and blue its first lead of the game, 87-85.

Australia's Renae Camino, who notched 18 points in the first half on 7-of-12 from the field in the first half, scored her lone points of the second with a 3-pointer at 1:07. It was Australia's final points, giving her squad a narrow 88-87 edge. With 48 seconds left Wiggins was well-screened, wide open, got a great feed from Courtney Paris (Oklahoma) and swished in a three to put the U.S. back on top, 90-88.

The USA out-rebounded Australia 45-22 and came close to the Aussies total rebounding output with 21 on the offensive end. However, the USA coughed up the ball 18 times and Australia had 15 turnovers. Australia's bread and butter was beyond the arc as the squad hit nearly half their field goals (29-62 FGs, 14-31 3pt FGs) from afar.

The American women continue play on June 30 against Brazil at 11:15 a.m. CT and face Hungary on July 1 at 6:45 a.m. CT. Following a day off, the USA resumes preliminary round play on July 3 against Spain at 4:30 a.m. CT and on July 4 the squad will celebrate the country's birthday with a 2:15 a.m. CT tip against Japan. Quarterfinals are slated for July 6, the semifinals will be held on July 7 and the finals are scheduled for July 8.