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Beard, USA Young Women Win Gold With 71-55 Victory Over Brazil
Aug. 3, 2003
SIBENIK, Croatia (August 3, 2003) - In what was a battle to the end, the USA Young Women's National Team (7-1) pulled out a 71-55 gold medal victory over its South American rivals Brazil (6-2) at the 2003 FIBA World Championship Young Women on Sunday night in Sibenik, Croatia. Seimone Augustus (Louisiana State / Baton Rouge, La.) was named MVP of the tournament after
pacing the United States to the gold medal with 18 points. The win avenged the USA's only loss, a 73-60 setback to Brazil on July 27 in preliminary play. In the bronze medal game, France took off in the fourth quarter and surpassed host Croatia 80-66.
In addition to Augustus, Alana Beard (Duke / Shreveport, La.) and Christi Thomas (Georgia / Buford, Ga.) were named to the 2003 All-FIBA World Championship For Young Women Team. France's Celine Dumerc and Brazil's Erika de Souza rounded out the five-member squad.
"It's hard to explain what this thing is sometimes. It's a month of preparations and I've done it often enough to know that if you have a quality group, you have a chance to get a gold medal," said USA and Ohio State University head coach Jim Foster. "They had great character and (Seimone) Augustus and (Christi) Thomas stepped up today, (Alana) Beard was consistent defensively. Seimone, for being the youngest player on the team, made a lot of big shots and a lot of big plays."
"I kept thinking about the gold medal, the gold medal at the end of the game," said Augustus. "That's all I could think about during the course of the game. It feels great and now that I have it, I'm not taking it off. I'm going to wear it home."
The first quarter was a tight affair that saw the score knotted thrice and the lead changed hands five times. Following a Brazilian jumper to start the game, the USA took off on a 7-0 run that ended at 7:45 with Shawntinice Polk's (Arizona / Hanford, Calif.) first points of the game. But Brazil called a time out, regrouped and at 6:26 had taken an 8-7 lead. It went back and forth from there and with 1:10 remaining in the period Brazil nailed its fourth 3-pointer of the game to tie it up at 18 apiece. But during the final 47 seconds of the quarter Kendra Wecker (Kansas State / Marysville, Kan.) hit a floating jumper and Thomas made a pair of free throws and the USA finished the first 10 minutes of action with a 22-18 lead, one that it would never relinquish.
Thomas kicked off the second quarter with a put-back at 9:38 and after 3:20 of play the USA was still in front by four, 26-22. Behind four points from Augustus, the United States scored nine straight points, jumping out to a 35-22 lead with 3:43 remaining in the half. By the midway buzzer the USA's lead had ballooned to 44-30.
Brazil's gold medal hopes were done in by poor shooting. While the Americans were busy making 18-of-35 shots from the field for a 51.4 percent accuracy, Brazil struggled and made just 10-of-35 tries overall for a frigid 28.6 percentage. Brazil managed to stay in contention in the first half thanks to its 3-point shooting as it made 6-of-11 3-pointers.
Polk scored a pair of layups in a 6-1 run to start the third quarter to give the U.S. its largest lead of the contest, 50-31, at the 6:40 mark. However, Brazil refused to go away and zoomed back with the help of a 16-4 run and with 1:38 remaining in the third quarter, the USA's advantage had been shaved to 54-47. Augustus nailed a 3-pointer and Brazil and the U.S. each made a field goal to end the third period with the U.S. on top 59-49.
Tight defense on both ends kept the fourth quarter scoreless until Brazil's Ana Flavia Sackis made both her free throws at the 6:52 mark. Cappie Pondexter (Rutgers / Chicago, Ill.) ended the USA's fourth quarter scoring drought with a 19-footer at 6:32 to up the score to 61-51, and with that, the U.S. was revived as four different players scored during a 10-4 run and the United States came away with the gold medal win.
"I thought the fourth quarter was like a classic heavyweight fight," stated Foster. "Both teams had thrown all their punches and leaning on each other. And whoever got the second wind was going to win the game, and we got our second wind. Seimone made a big basket or two, Christi Thomas made a big basket or two and Cappie did some very good things for us and that gave us the energy we needed to finish it out."
While Augustus spirited the USA's offense, Polk aided the victorious cause with 14 points that came on 7-for-10 shooting. Thomas finished with 13 points and a team high eight rebounds, while Beard, the fourth American to score in double digits, added 12 points.
The United States finished shooting 49.2 percent for the game, and made just 4-of-12 from 3-point. Brazil shot slightly better in the second half then the first, but still was limited to a dooming 30.2 percent from the floor. The USA also won the battle on the glass, outrebounding Brazil 34-28. The U.S. made just 13 turnovers. Brazil's leading scorer and former WNBA player Erika de Souza, who was named to the All-Tournament Team and was averaging 14.1 points a game through Brazil's first seven games, was held scoreless shooting 0-for-6 on the night.
Foster was assisted by collegiate head coaches Kathy Delaney-Smith of Harvard University (Mass.) and Felisha Legette-Jack of Hofstra University (N.Y.).
In Sunday's other finals play, Australia (6-2) ran past Russia (4-4) 74-59 to take fifth place, while China (3-5) out lasted Latvia (5-3) 85-77 to stake a claim on seventh place.
