USA & Paris One Win Away From Championship

TUNIS, Tunisia -- Behind 23 points on 9-of-10 shooting by Crystal Langhorne (Maryland/Willingboro. N.J.) and 15 additional points from Nicky Anosike (Tennessee/Staten Island, N.Y.) the USA U19 World Championship Team (7-0) crushed China (5-2) 99-68 Saturday night in semifinal play in Tunis, Tunisia. The USA is now within one victory of claiming the gold medal, something it has done just once (1997) in five previous U19 World Championships (formerly known as the Junior World Championship).

The USA will meet surprise finalist Serbia & Montenegro (4-3) in Sunday's gold medal game after Serbia surprised Russia (5-2) 78-65 in Saturday's other semifinal contest.

The USA and Serbia & Montenegro have already met once, playing July 17 in preliminary round game which the USA won by a 94-68 margin.

The USA and China battled evenly over the game's first 10 minutes. Candice Wiggins (Stanford/Poway, Calif.), who scored eight of the USA's first 16 points, nailed a 3-pointer to give the U.S. a 16-13 lead and help her team overcome a shaky first 2:30 during which it had four turnovers. At the end of the first period, the U.S. led by a single point, 24-23.

Box Score | World Championship Schedule | USA Central

A critical point in the game came midway through the first quarter when China's leading scorer, Liu Dan, picked up her third personal foul. Although she remained in the game, the U.S. consistently went inside against her.

"We were able to get No. 11 (Liu Dan) their best player in foul trouble and that was a big difference in the game," said U.S. and Duke University head coach Gail Goestenkors.

"Our depth gave us an advantage," remarked Langhorne, the 2005 Atlantic Coast Conference Rookie of the Year. "We don't have to have one post who has to score a lot, we have five and it really wears out other post players and they get really tired from playing all of us. Once we got No. 11 in foul trouble it was a lot easier because she was scared to play defense and pick up another foul so we took advantage of that."

Although the U.S. continued to pound it inside to Langhorne who scored the USA's first six points of the second quarter, the two teams continued to trade baskets and with 7:05 left to go in the second quarter, the score was deadlocked at 30 all.

The U.S. switched to a zone defense and that marked the beginning of the end for China.

The USA's zone allowed China just one 3-point field goal the rest of the quarter as China shot just 1-for-13 the remainder of the quarter.

"We were having difficulties stopping China. They're an outstanding offensive team and they were just giving us fits. It felt like they were scoring every time down the floor," said Goestenkors. "When we switched to the zone we really disrupted their flow and caused them a lot of problems. Our defense ignited our offense and that's how we were able to build our lead before halftime,"

Meanwhile, the U.S. offensively continued to go inside to Langhorne, Anosike, Courtney Paris (Piedmont H.S./Piedmont, Calif.) and Erlana Larkins (North Carolina/Riviera Beach, Fla.). With its post players contributing eight points, the U.S. whipped off 10 straight points to take a 40-30 lead with 3:24 left before halftime. Following a 3-pointer from China's Lu Lu, the U.S. closed the stanza by reeling off nine more points, four of those coming over the final five seconds of the quarter.

With the USA owning a 44-33 lead, Anosike went to the foul line with 9.3 seconds remaining after China's Liu Dan was whistled for her fourth personal foul. Making the first, Anosike missed the second but Marissa Coleman (St. John's College H.S./Cheltenham, Md.) was there for the rebound and the put back with 5 seconds left. Then, Coleman made a steal on China's inbound pass and hit a 12' jumper at the buzzer to send the Americans to the locker room flying high and leading 49-33.

"Our posts have been very consistent for us throughout the tournament and we feel like we've got five unbelievable post players. Most teams have one. A few have two. We've got five and we rotate them in and continue to attack," Goestenkors added.

The second half never saw China get closer than 18 points, as the U.S. expanded its lead to 75-48 after three quarters, then cruised in for the 99-68 win.

The USA made 42 of its 66 shots for a sizzling 63.6 shooting percentage, while China was limited to 27-of-65 (.415 percent) shooting from the floor, and just 6-of-20 (.300 percent) from 3-point.

While Langhorne and Anosike headed the USA's offensive charge, the U.S. had plenty of additional support. Wiggins finished with 14 points, Coleman added 10 points, Abby Waner tossed in nine more, while Larkins and Paris contributed eight points apiece. Larkins was the USA's leading rebounder with seven, Sharnee Zoll (Virginia/Philadelphia, Pa.) recorded a team high five assists, and Anosike snatched a U.S. high five steals.

Paris, who will be an Oklahoma freshman in the fall, is the third leading scorer with 12.4 points per game and the second leading rebounder with 7.0 rebounds per outing. The 17-year old has managed to be one of the most productive team members despite the fact that she has not started a game and is only logging 17.9 minutes per game.

"Even when we were up 20 or more it felt like it was a close game so I just tried to play hard through everything," said Anosike, whose statistical line of 15 points, six rebounds, five steals and two blocked shots in 15 minutes sparkled. "We knew No. 11 (Liu Dan) and No. 5 (Bian Lan) were a very good duo and we tried to get No. 11 into foul trouble. That was the game plan and it worked. We just tried to go at her every chance."

"Now we just have to finish what we started. We started this trip almost a month ago and this (the gold medal game) is what we've been training for, going through two-a-days and traveling. This is what it is all for so we have to pull everything together."

In Saturday's consolation semifinals, South Korea routed Hungary 92-70, while Spain overcame a 10 point halftime deficit to upend Australia 77-68. In the game to decide ninth place, Canada (3-4) slipped past Puerto Rico (2-5) 71-64, while Congo (1-6) earned its first win of the tournament and captured 11th place with a 78-60 victory over host Tunisia (0-7).

Serving as assistant coaches to head coach Goestenkors are Felisha Legette-Jack, head coach at Hofstra University's (N.Y.), and Carol Ross, head mentor at the University of Mississippi.

To be eligible for the 2005 USA U19 World Championship Team, an athlete must have been born on or after Jan. 1, 1986 (19-years-old or younger).

Formerly known as the FIBA Women's Junior World Championship and held every four years since 1985, the U.S. boasts of a 24-10 overall record and has captured one gold and one bronze medal. In 2001, at the most recent tournament, a USA Basketball team piloted by University of Connecticut's Geno Auriemma and featuring players like Alana Beard and Diana Taurasi collected the bronze medal with a 6-1 record.

USA Game-by-Game : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Quarters | Semis

University of Oklahoma Athletics

USA & Paris One Win Away From Championship

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