July 10, 1999
CALVIA, Spain- Defending World University Games gold medalists, the USA Basketball Women’s World University Games Team (4-1) survived a late comeback attempt by previously unbeaten Russia (4-1) to earn an 87-79 victory in the semifinal game Saturday night in Calvia, Spain. The U.S. will meet host Spain (5-0) in the gold medal contest on Monday night at 6:30 p.m. (12:30 EDT) at the San Moix Stadium in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. Spain defeated Ukraine (4-1) 67-63 in its semifinal match-up to earn the right to play for the gold medal. Russia and Ukraine will battle for the bronze medal at 10:00 a.m. (4:00 p.m. EDT) on Monday.
“This was a great game. It really went against the defensive philosophy we’ve been playing in the whole tournament,” said USA and Penn State head coach Rene Portland. “We had been playing very aggressively and in this game we were somewhat passive and played the penetration better than we did last night. We tried to force them to shoot the ball. We choked down on their post players and the thing that gave us trouble was transition defense. But I thought we did a terrific job in the half court game and offensively some players stepped up at key moments. Somebody different stepped up and hit bit shots and attacked the buckets. These girls showed a lot of patience and poise, considering some of the circumstances that we ran into late, and we used the clock as a friend.”
“There was definitely motivation for tonight because once you lose, you can’t take that game back, just like in the (NCAA) tournament,” said USA leading scorer Katie Douglas (Purdue / Indianapolis, Ind.), who finished with 18 points. “We came out with a lot of determination again tonight. We played as a team. I thought we weathered another good storm, when they made a run we stayed together as a team and played well.”
With neither team managing more than a three point lead, the first 11 minutes of the game saw nine tied scores and at the 8:57 mark the Russians held onto a slim 30-29 margin. Getting fouled while driving to the basket, Douglas made good on a three-point play to give the United States a 32-30 lead and sparked a U.S. 12-2 run to overtake the Russians 41-32 with 6:03 to go in the half. Following Douglas’ play, the Americans never again trailed. Swapping baskets to close out the half, Douglas hit a 10-footer with two seconds remaining and the USA owned a 56-50 lead at the half.
Russia came out strong in the second half and made six of its first nine attempts in the opening 6:23, while its defense limited the United States to 4-of-10 shooting during that span, and pulled to within two points, 65-63, with 13:37 to go. The Russians tied it up 67-67 at 11:38, but that was as close as the U.S. would allow them to get to a lead. The University of Notre Dame’s Ruth Riley (Macy, Ind.) hit two quick inside baskets on the USA’s next two possessions as the Americans began to slowly pull away and with 3:38 to go in the semifinal, the USA had increased its margin to 85-77.
At 3:12 Camille Cooper (Purdue / Georgetown, Ky.) fouled out and Russia’s Natalia Gavrilova made both of her attempts at the charity stripe to cut the deficit to 85-79. Russia stole the ball, but missed its shot and Kelly Miller was there for the rebound, ran up the court, passed off to Douglas, who hit a turn-around jumper in the lane for the game’s final points at 1:14. After taking its last time-out, Russia missed its next shot and LaQuanda Barksdale (North Carolina / Winston-Salem, N.C.) grabbed the rebound. Because Russia had only been whistled for four fouls in the second half, it quickly fouled the United States twice to stop the clock, but it was too late and the U.S. went away with the 87-79 decision.
“We knew we had to get off to a quick start like we had in the other games, and I was really fired up for this game and was really excited to play,” said USA guard Kelly Miller (Georgia / Rochester, Minn.), who scored a team second best 17 points. “They came back a little in the second half, but we’re strong enough and motivated enough to hang in there with it. We never let then get the lead back up and that was important. We just kept taking it to them and that helped us win.”
In addition to Douglas’ 18 points and Kelly Miller’s 17, the U.S. cause was further aided by 12 points by Brooke Wyckoff (Florida State / West Chester, Ohio) and Ruth Riley came off the bench to match Wyckoff’s 12, while Coco Miller (Georgia / Rochester, Minn.) checked in for 10 points. Wyckoff also grabbed a team high seven rebounds and the Miller twins each passed off for three assists.
Gavrilova finished with a game high 21 points in her team’s losing effort, while University of Connecticut standout Svetlana Abrossimova scored 14 points, recorded nine rebounds, four assists and four steals in 36 minutes of play.
The United States has increased its overall World University Games record to 68-13 (84.0%) and has earned 10 medals in 11 competitions, including four golds, five silvers and one bronze medal. The U.S. has only faced Spain once in World University Games play, earning an 88-62 victory in the gold medal game.
“We’re in a situation with Spain in that we’ve played them before. The bottom line is that we’ve got to show up and play hard and go to win the gold. Our goal was to get to this game, but our goal, since we met in Colorado Springs, was to win the gold,” added Portland.