United States vs. Senegal
Not much else needs to be written about this one when there is a final score of 121-56. Yes, that score was read correctly.
The USA Basketball Women’s National Team put in its highest scoring output ever in one Olympic game by dropping a grand total of 121 points on Senegal to open group play in the Olympics. There is a reason as to why Team USA is heavily favored to win gold in Rio and games like this show why.
It was an over 60-percent shooting performance for the USA along with three players scoring 15 points—Diana Taurasi, Sylvia Fowles, and Breanna Stewart. Brittney Griner also added 14 of her own.
This one was practically over from the opening tip and despite the crowd at the Youth Arena being a mostly pro-Senegal (pro-underdog) set, Senegal was no match for Team USA.
Perhaps Spain with give the Stars and Stripes a tougher go of things later today (11 a.m. on NBCSN).
Serbia vs. Spain
Speaking of Spain…
How is it that we are able to go from one game that was a complete laugher to one that ended up being a nailbiter? That is what happened in the game that followed Team USA’s when Spain faced off against Serbia.
It was close until the end, but Spain ended up prevailing over Serbia by six with the final score being 65-59.
Spain can give a lot of credit to three players on as to what made the difference in its win over Serbia—Marta Xargay and her 15 points, Anna Cruz and her 13, and Astou Ndour and her 11. This despite Serbia out-shooting Spain from the field as Serbia shot 40 percent while Spain only did 32.
Spain was able to overcome a 17-point outing courtesy of Jelena Milovanovic and 12 by Sonja Petrovic. This was also because of offensive rebounding differentials. Serbia was out-boarded on the offensive glass by a margin of 18-5.
In addition to Spain and Team USA, Serbia gets Canada tomorrow once Spain/USA has gone final.
Australia vs. Turkey
Fresh off of a victory the previous day against Brazil which sent its home fans at the Youth Arena a bit less than happy, the Australian Opals in Group A advanced to 2-0 in these Olympics by defeating Turkey with the final tally being 61-56.
And as France found out, it is not exactly the easiest defensive assignment when you have to prevent Liz Cambage from scoring. Cambage added another 22 points to her Rio Games. She also shot 56 percent from the field and made four of her five free throws.
Katie Ray Ebzery and Leilani Mitchell also added another 11 points each.
The good news for Turkey was Lara Sanders’ 25 points, Nevriye Yilmaz’s 14, and Isil Alben’s 13. The bad news for Turkey was no one else had any more than two.
When three players score nearly all of your buckets and the defense cannot hold the other team, that typically leads to defeat and that is what happened to Turkey against the Aussies.
France vs. Belarus
Sunday’s slate of matchups in Rio concluded with France and Belarus. France—a team that was fresh off of a 55-39 victory of Turkey from the previous day and Belarus who only lost by four points to Japan (77-73).
But as the theme of the day seemed to be at the Youth Arena, once Team USA was no longer on the court, the basketball became more and more competitive. It is amazing how that happens. The French only prevailed over Belarus by a final of 73-72.
Much of the first half was promising for Belarus, looking to get in the win column for these Olympics. They had a 22-14 lead after the first quarter and took a 42-34 advantage into the second half.
Late in the fourth quarter after Lindsey Harding made a pair of free throws to put Belarus in front 72-71, a buzzer-beating two via Endy Miyem sealed the deal for the French.
Miyem finished with 12 points. Olivia Epoupa added 16 and Valeriane Ayayi contributed 13.
Tatsiana Likhtarovich scored 16 for Belarus and Katsiaryna Snytsina put in 14 in a losing effort.
By: Akiem Bailum (@AkiemBailum on Twitter, Instagram)
