Welch Has Best Overall Game Against Serbia

USA second-half scoring draught gives Serbia-Montenegro 74-61 win

DAEGU, South Korea OU sophomore Chelsi Welch had her best overall performance of the World University Games earlier today against Serbia-Montenegro. The 5-9 guard scored seven points, grabbed two rebounds, both offensive, dished out two assists and pocketed a steal while playing a personal-best 21:07 minutes.

Team USA's cold second-half shooting performance allowed Serbia-Montenegro to capture a 74-61 win in the World University Games Wednesday at Junghwa Girls High. The USA hit just 27.3 percent from the floor and was outscored 45-26 in the second half.

"We played hard in this game, it was much closer than the score indicated," head coach Bill Fennelly (Iowa State) said. "For the first time, we took great care of the ball, but we could not hit the shots. It is tough to win shooting 33 percent."

In a back-and-forth battle that saw the score tied five times, Team USA owned a 17-14 lead at the end of the first quarter. Tera Bjorklund (Colorado) found her offensive game and put up six points in each of the first two quarters on 6-of-10 shooting. Annissa Hastings (Texas) had six rebounds, six points and three steals in the first half to help the USA to a 35-29 lead at the break.

Serbia-Montenegro reeled off six consecutive points to start the third quarter, tying up the score at 35-35 with 8:14 left in the period. The USA managed only five points in the first eight minutes of the quarter, giving Serbia-Montenegro a 53-40 lead with 2:09 remaining in the third quarter and a 56-46 advantage headed into the final period.

Serbia-Montenegro scored the first six points of the fourth quarter to own its largest lead of the game (62-46). Heather Schreiber (Texas) sank three treys and a layup to score 11 of the USA's 13 points in the fourth quarter and bring Team USA within 12 points (68-57) with 4:21 remaining. Both teams remained scoreless for more than two minutes before Serbia-Montenegro went on a 6-0 run to seal the victory.

Schreiber finished with a game-high 19 points and a team-best nine rebounds. Bjorklund added 16 points. Team USA committed only 13 turnovers, but was beaten on the glass 40-32.

"We have two games left and we still have something to play for in those games," Fennelly said. "These are competitive kids and I am sure they will represent the USA in a great manner."

The USA will face either Ireland or the Czech Republic at 3 p.m. Thursday. The final classification round is played on Saturday.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Welch Has Best Overall Game Against Serbia

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