Upcoming Event: Women's Soccer versus Wake Forest on August 5, 2026 at 7 p.m.
/
7 p.m.
Women's Soccer
vs Wake Forest
Waner Nets 15 Points To Lead USA U21 Women Over Belgium
MOSCOW, RUSSIA-- Paced by a double-double of 18 points and 10 rebounds from Courtney Paris (Oklahoma / Piedmont, Calif.), the 2007 USA Basketball U21 World Championship Team (6-0) put the hammer down early and whipped Belgium (2-4) 104-53 on Friday night at the FIBA U21 World Championship in Moscow. With the win, the U.S. advances to Saturday evening's semifinal contest (10:00 a.m. EDT) against host Russia (5-1), which defeated Hungary (3-3) 71-55 earlier this evening.
"I think, for going into the medal round, I wanted to be urgent and I think I definitely had a sense of urgency out there," said Paris. "There's reasons you get put on these USA Basketball teams. You want to do what you can do. I'm a rebounder and a scorer, so I just tried to do that."
Also advancing to the July 7 medal semifinals are Australia (5-1), which trounced Canada (3-3) 98-57, and unbeaten France (6-0), which defeated Brazil (1-5) 68-85. The gold medal will be contested July 8 at 6:00 p.m.
(10:00 a.m. EDT), preceded by the bronze medal game at 3:45 p.m. (7:45 a.m. EDT).
"I thought it was a great game, a lot of people got involved," said USA U21 National Team and Duke University (N.C.) head coach Joanne P. McCallie. "I love to see six people in double figures. I thought the rebounding was absolutely tremendous. That's exactly what we need going into tomorrow's game.
"We're excited about tomorrow night. We need to work hard, play as a team, go to our strengths. We want to be relentless from start to finish, we want to run the floor very, very well and really challenge Russia to do so with us. And at the same time we want to rebound like crazy. If those components fall into place we should be in good shape."
Belgium hung around for the first quarter and with time winding down the USA was up 20-18. However, Abby Waner (Duke / Highlands Ranch, Colo.) nailed a three before the buzzer sounded to up the ante to 23-18.
Belgium couldn't keep up with the USA's fast-paced offense and stifling defense as the Americans dominated both ends of the floor in a 27-9 second quarter clinic and were up 50-27 at the half.
Any second half comeback hopes were quickly squelched as the U.S. came out of the locker room and went on an 11-0 tear to put the game out of reach 61-27 with 16:55 more to play in the game. Continuing to overpower their opponents, the Americans strung together a 16-0 scoring spree late in the game to double Belgium's scoring output for the biggest lead of the night, 98-49 at 2:04, and coasted in for the victory.
The USA's medal quarterfinals domination was another all-around team effort as everyone scored, including six in double digits. Waner shot 4-of-5 from 3-point range and put up 15 points, Ashley Houts (Georgia / Trenton, Ga.) scored 14, DeWanna Bonner (Auburn / Fairfield, Ala.) and Crystal Langhorne (Maryland / Willingboro, N.J.) notched 11 apiece and Marscilla Packer (Ohio State / Pickerington, Ohio) chipped in 10 points.
Kia Vaughn (Rutgers / Bronx, N.Y.) and Laura Harper (Maryland / Elkins Park, Pa.) helped power the USA's lopsided rebounding totals with 11 and 10 boards, respectively, as the squad owned a 61-23 advantage on the glass.
"I love to rebound and I know Courtney and everybody else does, too," said Vaughn. "We just get it done. Between the post players we have this little contest. I'll be like, ?Courtney, I bet you I'll get like six before you do!' Or something like that. But Courtney, she's a beast on the offensive boards. And we love that she and Lang get all those offensive rebounds and that's what we look at them to do for us. The rest of us get the defensive ones. We just try to spread it out a little bit."
Sara Leemans tossed 16 points and Fannie VanDesteene added 11 for Belgium.
The USA forced 23 Belgium turnovers on 16 steals and held the opposing squad to 32.8 percent (19-58 FGs) shooting from the floor overall and 21.7 percent (5-23 3pt FGs) from 3-point.
"We experienced a little bit of Belgium's fans tonight and we felt a little bit of their animosity towards the U.S.," commented Waner on Russia's home court advantage. "It's going to be amplified by about 100 tomorrow night. We're just going to have to be ready to go and realize that we're not going to have very many fans for us in the stands and just stick together. Russia's going to be a very tough team, especially with their home court advantage, but we've been looking forward to this the whole time."
In the classification games Japan (2-4) downed China (1-5) 74-62, while Spain (2-4) bested Mali (0-6) 75-48. Japan and Spain will square off for ninth place and China will face Mali in the 11th place game.
McCallie is being assisted by collegiate head coaches Sam Dixon of Furman University (S.C.), an assistant to McCallie last summer with the 2006 USA U20 National Team, and Arizona State University's Charli Turner Thorne.
Prior to arriving in Russia, the USA spent a week training in France and completed a three-game sweep against the French U21 World Championship Team. On June 18 the USA won in Monte Carlo, Monaco, to a tune of 82-59, on June 19 in Antibes the score was 81-68 and on June 21 the series concluded in La Garde with the USA on top 71-57.
The USA is hoping to defend its world title in this age group, open to athletes 21-years-old or younger (born on or after Jan. 1, 1986), at the 2007 FIBA U21 World Championship, which runs through July 8.
USA head coach Joanne P. McCallie
On tonight's game:
We definitely worked on a lot of different combinations. We tried to work on our defensive positioning and adjusting some things defensively, and offensively having a better tempo against a zone. Belgium hung in a zone for a long, long time. Initially we were firing up shots left and right and we've got some terrific post players, everybody's got to get a touch. And then we can pretty much do lots of different and creative things on offense.
I thought it was a great game, a lot of people got involved. I love to see six people in double figures. I thought the rebounding was absolutely tremendous. That's exactly what we need going into tomorrow's game.
You've got Russia for the semifinals, they've got the crowd, they're playing on their home court, how difficult will that game be?
Sure, it's a great environment and it's something we welcome. It really resembles what we do back home in the States. These women are use to playing in front of many hostile crowds. To be honest, it's been disappointing to not have fans watching any of these games because there's been some pretty remarkable women's basketball games.
We're excited about tomorrow night. We need to work hard, play as a team, go to our strengths. We want to be relentless from start to finish, we want to run the floor very, very well and really challenge Russia to do so with us. And at the same time we want to rebound like crazy. If those components fall into place we should be in good shape.
Abby Waner, Duke University
Were you working on anything particular in the second half?
Yeah, we wanted to be able to go inside-out first before we shot because we could get easy shots on the wing, but nothing was in rhythm. And we do have the best post players in the word. We need to make sure they get touches so they can mix things up in the inside and that way we'll have an inside and outside threat.
You had another good shooting game, that's two in a row now. You've got to be a little relieved.
I think, by my own standards, I'm the least consistent shooter here. It's nice to finally be comfortable and be loose, instead of letting the misses pile up. It's just something I have to work on mentally. Our team just does a really good job of finding the gaps and getting the open shooters. This is a very, very good team.
Russia will be a lot tougher tomorrow. They're going to be one of the best teams you've faced here, plus they're playing on their home court.
We experienced a little bit of Belgium's fans tonight and we felt a little bit of their animosity towards the U.S. It's going to be amplified by about 100 tomorrow night. We're just going to have to be ready to go and realize that we're not going to have very many fans for us in the stands and just stick together. Russia's going to be a very tough team, especially with their home court advantage, but we've been looking forward to this the whole time.
