WOMEN’S HOOPS U.S. 88 Russia 77
SYDNEY – This time there was no knockout punch. This time the U.S. women’s basketball team knew it had a 40-minute, in-your-face, elbows-out brawl on its hands, with nothing less than the reputation of the entire program at risk.
In fact, if Team USA had lost the game to Russia today, the video of the contest would have been passed among international coaches faster than a bag of donuts around a squad car.
But breathe easy, America, the depth and athletic ability of coach Nell Fortner’s team came through in the end, and Team USA was able to wrest away an 88-77 win over previously unbeaten Russia.
As the final seconds ticked off the clock, Lisa Leslie, Teresa Edwards and Ruthie Bolton-Holifield led a celebration worthy of a gold-medal championship. They knew the team had dodged a bullet.
“We’ve known for eight months that this was going to be our toughest game,” a tired Natalie Williams said 10 minutes after the game ended, the buzz of the crowd still not diminished.
Team USA had beaten the same Russian squad last year by 36 points, and Russia had carried around the memory of that pasting for months, just itching for a little payback.
“You have to understand there’s a great rivalry here,” said Sheryl Swoopes, who spun and drove and took opponents off the dribble all night for 16 points.
“It was a great win for us,” saidSwoopes.
Russia, by shooting 60 percent from the field in the first half, grabbed the lead with 10:22 left in the stanza and held on to it like it was theirs to keep.
Their center, 6-foot-3 Natalie Zassoulskaia, who looks like she can star in the leading role of “The Kathy Bates Story,” was the muscle who looked to keep the status quo. Russia’s hot hand led to a 47-44 lead at the half, and Team USA players would say later they were “embarrassed” giving up 47 points to the team.
Fortner whipped up a defensive plan that would take the steam out of the Russians’ attack.
“We wanted to be up on the ball, make it uncomfortable for them to handle the ball and look for opportunities off of turnovers,” said Katie Smith.
Team USA also made the less athletic Russia squad work harder to score. The result was that in less than four minutes of the second half, Russia seemed tired, pushing shots off the front of the rim, running into teammates where they used to set crisp picks, and falling off on defense. On numerous second-half occasions, Team USA got second and third shots and the hoop.
Team USA out-rebounded Russia, 32-23, and forced 16 turnovers.
The solid effort would have been wasted, though, had role players such as Bolton-Holifield and Williams not stepped up. “We have a lot of weapons off the bench,” Dawn Staley said after the win. “Teams will learn that our depth is something they can’t match.”
