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Women show the way
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| USA players celebrate winning gold after beating Australia in the women’s basketball final game at the Olympics in Beijing on Saturday. ASSOCIATED PRESS |
U.S. basketball team wins fourth straight gold.
Associated Press
BEIJING — Lisa Leslie and the U.S. women’s
basketball team were once again too good for Australia at the Olympics.
Leslie capped off her illustrious Olympic career with a fourth straight gold medal scoring 14 points in a 92-65 victory against Australia on Saturday night. She joined former teammate Teresa Edwards as the only basketball
players ever to win four gold medals.
“I visualized having a fourth gold medal,” Leslie told NBC. “I’ve been able to represent my country since I was 24 years old. It’s been just awesome.”
Russia took the bronze medal beating host China 94-81 as Becky Hammon scored 22 points.
The Aussies have now lost to the Americans in the gold medal game in the past three Olympics with all three defeats coming by double-digit margins.
Australia figured this was its best shot to beat the Americans as Penny Taylor and Erin Phillips missed the first half of the WNBA season so that they could train for the Beijing Games. Lauren Jackson left the Seattle Storm two weeks before the Olympic break so she could join her
teammates.
Even with their extra training and Taylor
returning to the starting lineup after missing the semifinals with a sprained right ankle, the Australians just couldn’t match the Americans’ depth.
Kara Lawson led the U.S. with 15 points, Candace Parker added 14, and Sylvia Fowles added 13 as the American reserves outscored Australia’s 59-11.
Trailing 13-10 late in the first quarter, U.S. coach Anne Donovan inserted her second unit, led by Lawson. Once again, the bench delivered just as it had throughout the Olympics with Lawson scoring the first six points of a 12-2 run to close the quarter as the U.S. took a 22-15 lead.
Then Parker, who has had a relatively quiet Olympics averaging only 8.7 points, took over. She scored eight of the Americans’ 10 points to open the second quarter, including two three-point plays. On her second, the 6-foot-4 forward took the ball from the top of the key, went through her legs and drove to the basket for a layup — a play that thrilled the men’s basketball players watching from the stands and even had LeBron James rising to his feet to stand on his seat.
Lawson closed the half with five straight points to give the U.S. a 47-30 lead, capping the Americans’ most impressive half in Beijing. The U.S. shot
63 percent (19-for-30) and held the Aussies to just
22 percent (8-for-37).
Jackson finished with 20 points to lead Australia.
1,600 relay gold
In a pair of races that brought some redemption for the U.S. track and field team, Jeremy Wariner, Sanya Richards and Allyson Felix led a sweep of the 1,600-meter relays Saturday.
Richards anchored her team to a come-from-behind victory in 3 minutes, 18.54 seconds, the world’s fastest time since 1993. It was the fourth straight Olympic win in the event for the U.S.
A few minutes later, Wariner crossed the line 12 strides ahead of Christopher Brown of the Bahamas, finishing in 2:55.39 to break the Olympic record by 0.35 second.
BEIJING — Lisa Leslie and the U.S. women’s
basketball team were once again too good for Australia at the Olympics.
Leslie capped off her illustrious Olympic career with a fourth straight gold medal scoring 14 points in a 92-65 victory against Australia on Saturday night. She joined former teammate Teresa Edwards as the only basketball
players ever to win four gold medals.
“I visualized having a fourth gold medal,” Leslie told NBC. “I’ve been able to represent my country since I was 24 years old. It’s been just awesome.”
Russia took the bronze medal beating host China 94-81 as Becky Hammon scored 22 points.
The Aussies have now lost to the Americans in the gold medal game in the past three Olympics with all three defeats coming by double-digit margins.
Australia figured this was its best shot to beat the Americans as Penny Taylor and Erin Phillips missed the first half of the WNBA season so that they could train for the Beijing Games. Lauren Jackson left the Seattle Storm two weeks before the Olympic break so she could join her
teammates.
Even with their extra training and Taylor
returning to the starting lineup after missing the semifinals with a sprained right ankle, the Australians just couldn’t match the Americans’ depth.
Kara Lawson led the U.S. with 15 points, Candace Parker added 14, and Sylvia Fowles added 13 as the American reserves outscored Australia’s 59-11.
Trailing 13-10 late in the first quarter, U.S. coach Anne Donovan inserted her second unit, led by Lawson. Once again, the bench delivered just as it had throughout the Olympics with Lawson scoring the first six points of a 12-2 run to close the quarter as the U.S. took a 22-15 lead.
Then Parker, who has had a relatively quiet Olympics averaging only 8.7 points, took over. She scored eight of the Americans’ 10 points to open the second quarter, including two three-point plays. On her second, the 6-foot-4 forward took the ball from the top of the key, went through her legs and drove to the basket for a layup — a play that thrilled the men’s basketball players watching from the stands and even had LeBron James rising to his feet to stand on his seat.
Lawson closed the half with five straight points to give the U.S. a 47-30 lead, capping the Americans’ most impressive half in Beijing. The U.S. shot
63 percent (19-for-30) and held the Aussies to just
22 percent (8-for-37).
Jackson finished with 20 points to lead Australia.
1,600 relay gold
In a pair of races that brought some redemption for the U.S. track and field team, Jeremy Wariner, Sanya Richards and Allyson Felix led a sweep of the 1,600-meter relays Saturday.
Richards anchored her team to a come-from-behind victory in 3 minutes, 18.54 seconds, the world’s fastest time since 1993. It was the fourth straight Olympic win in the event for the U.S.
A few minutes later, Wariner crossed the line 12 strides ahead of Christopher Brown of the Bahamas, finishing in 2:55.39 to break the Olympic record by 0.35 second.
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