The theme of day number seven at the Youth Arena in Rio de Janeiro appeared to be that the more basketball that was played, the more decisive the results became. The games went from competitive, to not-so-competitive, to not-even-close-to-being-competitive.
Serbia vs. China
If any team needed a pick me up after a huge loss, it was Serbia. After all, Serbia’s schedule coming into these Olympics was anything but easy, playing teams such as Spain, Canada, and the United States—who scored a 110-84 victory against Serbia.
But, every team has its day—and against China, Serbia had its, defeating China by a final score of 80-72.
China did not have much of an answer for Ana Dabovic and her 23 points or Sonja Petrovic as she added 20.
For China, Mengran Sun led with 16 points while four other players added eight a piece.
After outscoring China 26-9 in the third quarter, it seemed as if Serbia was not only going to get its first victory, but earn its first win of these Rio Games in Team USA-like fashion.
That is, if China decided that since the game seemed out of reach that it would just go away and live to fight another day. That did not happen as what was a 23-point lead at the end of the third quarter only became an eight-point Serbia win at the conclusion of this game.
It was not that close for much of the game, but there is still something to be said for refusing to lose by double-digits.
Canada vs. United States
Canada and the United States. They share a border, several lakes, and former UConn players as part of its basketball teams.
As we know, Geno Auriemma is the coach of Team USA. He also is the head coach of the UConn women’s basketball team. One of his former players is Kia Nurse, who happens to be on the roster for Team Canada.
Both teams also shared undefeated records coming into their tilt against each other on Friday. Emphasis on shared, not share. Team USA notched a 30-point victory over Canada—81-51. The win also clinched Group B.
It may not have been another game in which the United States crossed the century mark into triple-digits, but a win is a win in the Olympics.
Diana Taurasi is coming off of a game in which she set a new record for most threes made with six when Team USA won 110-84 against Serbia. She had the three-point shot working for her again as she made four of her five attempts from downtown.
That allowed her to have a 12-point outing. Maya Moore, another UConn alum, also added 12 points and eight rebounds. Tina Charles also put in ten points.
Spain vs. Senegal
Now we are going, once again, into the absolute absurd.
One of the most popular sports memes on the internet is the Crying Michael Jordan—plastered on any sports figure (or any figure in general) that was a forgetful or embarrassing moment.
Someone may want to plaster said Crying Jordan on Senegal’s coach—for the third time these Olympics.
Senegal has already suffered blowout losses to the United States (121-65) and China (101-64). Apparently, the third-ranked team in the world, Spain, wanted to also play the game of “How badly will Senegal get blown out?”
The answer: 54 points as Spain thrashed Senegal by a final of 97-43.
Just as Senegal’s matchup against Team USA was never close, Spain’s matchup against Senegal was also never close. Spain had leads of 26-11 after the first quarter and 46-19 after the second quarter.
Spain had six players finish in double-digits for points including Astou Ndour who finished with 18 and Alba Torrens who added 14 to a winning Spain effort. Senegal’s leading scorer was Mame Marie Sy who had 16.
Overall, that did not make up for Senegal’s porous shooting percentage—26 percent from the field.
Today…
Australia (undefeated) vs. Belarus at 11:15 p.m., Turkey vs. Brazil 2:30 p.m., Japan vs. France 4:45 p.m.
By: Akiem Bailum (@AkiemBailum on Twitter, Instagram)
