TORONTO, Canada — The road to this gold medal journey has been long and difficult for USA Pan American point guard Moriah Jefferson. Nothing fancy tonight as she led Team USA into the semi-finals after a long-winded and stubborn 93-77 win over Puerto Rico in the last day of Pool A play at the RYA Athletic Center. Team USA plays Cuba tomorrow at 1:30pm in the semi-finals.
The USA opened the game with a quick blast of scoring from Jefferson who hit two threes for a quick 7-2 lead. Puerto Rico would not go away raining down 5 three’s in the first quarter to finish down 24-23. Every time the USA pulled away, Puerto Rico came back and make hard shots and drives to cut their 11 point deficit to a 46-41 by halftime.
USA point guard Moriah Jeffeson talks about her fast start and scoring in game with Puerto Rico.
Jefferson opened a 49-41 lead for Team USA with another three but just when the USA started a run in the third quarter to grab a 9 point lead Puerto Rico’s (8) Sanchez Cortijo added 10 points, two assists to get everyone’s attention going into the fourth quarter down only 67-64. Coach Lisa Bluder wanted her team to take a breath and go out and dominate the last quarter. The game took a positive turn for the USA when PR’s leading scorer Cortijo (24 points) left the game with an injury and Stewart went on scoring spree 7 points, 5 rebounds and three steals for Team USA to breeze into the final minutes with a double-digit lead and eventual 93-77 win. If you didn’t watch the game and just looked at the score, you’d never know this was a battle.
USA Coach Lisa Bluder shares her view as the USA Team entered the fourth quarter versus Puerto Rico.
While Stewart claimed leading scorer with 24 points, 12 rebounds the other force inside was Alaina Coates (South Carolina) who got 23 points and 13 rebounds. Kelsey Plum (7 points) added some punch in the last quarter but it was Moriah Jefferson’s night.
Jefferson who along with teammate Breanna Stewart has three NCAA Division 1 Championships to their credit at UConn with Morgan Tuck) the road to her possible third USA Team gold medal was not exactly smooth sailing. While Stewart has collected five FIBA youth level gold medals, Jefferson was not selected during her earlier attempts to make a USA team at the u16 (2010) and u17 (2011) levels but finally did make the 2012 u18s (gold) and 2013 u19s (gold) with a break last year. The surprise was Jefferson was considered by all media reps at the youth trials to be a lock for the roster. Now, with USA Basketball and NCAA experience behind her she is the go-to point guard. Jefferson had 21 points on Brazil on opening night, was not needed on offense for the Dominican Republic but her 14 points, six assister were critical versus Puerto Rico.
USA point guard Moriah Jefferson talks about the age differences and having to grind it out during the game tonight.
If the USA game was a battle, then the Canada-Cuba game was a scare for the host Canadians who had to hold on for a 71-68 victory to win Pool B and move into the semifinals and face Brazil at 6 p.m.
The surprising outcome was another issue of older, seasoned players not letting the expected scores get in the way of a great game. Cuba hung around down only 12 to start the final quarter and pulled to 68-67 with :14 left on two Leidys Oquendo foul shots, but missed the third to tie. Kia Nurse grabbed the rebound and passed down through the Cuban press for Tamara Tatham’s layup, Game over 71-68. Canada plays Brazil who gave the USA team a tough game on opening night while the USA draws Cuba for the PanAm games women’s semi-finals on Sunday.
The other two games were between Pool A and Pool B teams which will compete for final four placements fifth through eighth place. The Dominician Republic will face Venezuala for 7th place at 10:30am after losing to Brazil 73-54. Argentina beat Venezuela 87-68 and get’s Puerto Rico in the 5th place game at 9 p.m. It will be the first time the USA will not play at the 9 p.m. slot.
