BANGKOK, Thailand – The USA Women’s U19 World Cup Team unleashed a balanced attack Saturday and cruised.
Taking control of the game with a 21-4 third-quarter output, the Americans opened the 13th FIBA U19 World Cup with a 79-56 victory over Australia.
Paige Bueckers (Hopkins H.S./St. Louis Park, Minn.) led the USA with 11 points, along with seven rebounds and six of her team’s 13 assists; Queen Egbo (Baylor/Houston, Texas) added 10 points and was 4-of-4 from the free throw line; Naz Hillmon-Baker (Michigan/Cleveland, Ohio) had 10 points and nine rebounds; and Rhyne Howard (Kentucky/Cleveland, Tenn.) and Hailey Van Lith (Cashmere H.S./Wenatchee, Wash.) also contributed 10 points apiece.
“We came out in the second half and played without fouling,” said Jeff Walz, USA U19 and University of Louisville head coach on his team’s third-quarter surge. “We still played aggressive, dictated the tempo of the game and got Australia playing a little faster than they probably wanted to play. Then we got some easy baskets out of our defense, where in the first half we were just fouling too much. We were fouling in positions where there’s no need to foul. We were running over post players in transition, had too much hand on the ball when the ball handler was coming up the floor. We made a few small adjustments for that at halftime, and then we were able to start playing and I thought they did a very good job.”
In the first quarter, the USA jumped out 4-0 and then led by as many as nine points, 15-6 with 3:30 to play. Australia closed the gap to finish the quarter trailing 19-14. The USA scored 10 of its points from the free throw line in the first quarter.
The second period saw Australia tie the game at 21-21 just three minutes into the quarter, but the USA pushed its lead back to 28-22 at 4:58. Sinking three 3-pointers over the last three minutes of the first half, Australia tied the game at 32-all with 2:21 left, but the USA responded to lead 39-35 at the midway point.
“They came out very strong,” Hillmon-Baker said. “They wanted to come out fighting and that’s exactly what they did. They tried to force the tempo and force the pace and the physicality in the first half, which they did a good job of. We wanted to come out in the second half and be the ones changing the tempo.”
Which is precisely what the USA did in the second half.
Hillmon-Baker got a steal and finished off a layup 16 seconds into the third quarter. A minute later Bueckers scored off of another steal and the USA was off and running on a 10-0 spurt.
“Our defensive intensity is what really got us going,” Hillmon-Baker said. “I wouldn’t say that we had a strong offense in the first half, so getting stops and steals so we could get easy buckets is what really helped us pull away in the second half.”
Not allowing Australia to score for the first 3:48 and giving up just four points in the period overall, the USA led 60-39 with 10 minutes to play. In all, the USA scored nine points off of nine Australian turnovers, recorded five steals and nine points on the fast break, and stymied Australia into shooting a frigid 15.4% (2-13 FGs) from the floor in the third period.
