U.S. Downs China, Will Play for Gold

April 24, 2008

BEIJING -- The U.S. Women's Senior National Team defeated China, 86-61, Thursday in its final preliminary round game at the Good Luck Beijing Tournament, an Olympic test event sponsored by FIBA.

The U.S. (4-1) cruised to four straight wins in the tournament after an opening round loss to Australia to take the No. 1 spot in the standing following round robin play. The Americans will meet China (4-1) again Saturday in the gold medal game at Wukesong Arena.

That game will be televised live on NBA TV at 7 a.m. Central and replayed at 3 p.m.

"We knew we had to come in and play a good game," U.S. head coach Anne Donovan said. "We've seen China quite a bit and have been following their progress. We recognize that this is a very good team that's done a lot of training and has improved dramatically since 2004.

"We knew we needed to come in focused to get this win."

Three-time Olympic gold medalist Lisa Leslie scored 26 points and Sylvia Fowles recorded her third double-double of the tournament with 20 points and 16 rebounds.

"Our posts really established a great presence inside," Leslie said. "Even though China is bigger than South Korea was, we still needed to get it inside and our team did a really good job of that. Overall our team defense was really what stood out to me."

Courtney Paris, who has earned seven gold medals in seven tournaments with USA Basketball, had three points and four rebounds.

For more information on the U.S. Senior National Team, visit USABasketball.com.

China's Lan Bian scored 14 and Xiaoli Chen added 13.

The teams were evenly matched through much of the first half, which featured five lead changes and five knotted scores in 13 minutes of action. Then, with China holding on 30-29, Fowles took a feed from Katie Smith (Detroit Shock) to put the U.S. up for good, 31-30, with 6:43 remaining in the half. Leslie followed with a pair of buckets and by the end of the first 20 minutes the USA owned an 8-point lead, 43-35.

China managed to snare the first four points coming out of the locker rooms, closing to 43-39 with 18:19 remaining in the contest. However, Leslie scored seven points during an 11-2 U.S. barrage that spanned four minutes and left the American women in control 54-41 at 4:21.

The U.S. shot an amazing 60 percent (34-of-58) from the field while holding China to 30 percent (17-of-56). Team USA outrebounded China 48 to 31.

In Thursday's other games Cuba (3-2) defeated South Korea (1-4) 78-66, while New Zealand (1-4) earned its first victory after edging Australia (2-3) 63-59. Cuba and Australia will play in Saturday's bronze medal game, while South Korea will face New Zealand to determine fifth place.

For the second straight game, every U.S. player who participated scored points.

Lindsey Harding left the game in the third quarter and did not return with a strained knee.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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