Rio De Janeiro – Japan lived up to the feisty nature of play and competition it has exhibited during the 2016 Rio Olympics and make the USA play an almost perfect second half to move into the semifinals with a 110-64 victory.
Team USA was tied with Japan at 15 with 5:08 in the first quarter and needed a 8-0 run at the end of the first half for a 65-46 lead. A quick 10-0 run at the start of the third quarter make an exciting game a rout.
“In first half we played Japanese basketball with a lot of poise and we made America sweat a little bit,” smiled 5-9 shooter Mika Kurihara who scored 14 points. “Coming into the game we knew they were huge and had to battle them in the paint. In the first half I hit my open shots and it spread the floor so we were able to get stuff inside. In the second half they didn’t let me breathe, they wouldn’t let me get the ball.”
Japan shot 7 for 11 from the three point line but only managed 1 for 10 in the second as the USA picked up the defense and closed out on shooters.
“We haven’t played these guys since an exhibition game in Seattle since 2009. It’s been a long time,” said Auriemma. “I don’t think there’s any country that’s come further in that amount of time as Japan has. They’re so free flowing, so much fun to watch. If they had a couple of big kids… obviously that was a big advantage that we had today, our size and our length created problems (for them).
“I don’t care what country I’ve traveled to or been to, I’ve not seen a kid shoot the ball like #7 (Mika Kurihara). I mean, come on, who shoots step back three from 28th feet and gets it off – and we have some quick defenders and they had no chance against her. And their point guard, how about their point guard (5-5 Asmai Yoshida) she’s fearless. She didn’t care if she got her shot blocked 10 times by BG (Brittney Griner) and I am coming back in there for number 11.”
Maya Moore and Diana Taurasi led the USA with 19 points each and Angel McCoughtry chipped in with 13 points. Elena DellaDonne (11), Sylvia Fowles (10) and Lindsay Whalen (10) gave Team USA six players in double figures with 11 players scoring. The only exception was veteran point guard Sue Bird who was injured right before half.
“Today was kinda tough (with Japan),” said McCoughtry. “So I wanted to come off the bench and be aggressive. Coach said I better play defense and I did.”
“We kinda made some mistakes, a couple of mistakes in a couple of the game,” said Japan assistant coach Tom Hovasse a former Penn State basketball player. “I think we’ve could’ve been a second or third seed if we would have played a little bit better against Turkey in the first quarter, finished the game against Australia. Those are things that hurt us in hindsight us because we had to play the best team in the world.”
Fan support for Japan was loud and responsive among the supporters which included member of the Japanese Water Polo team. “I heard about viewing parties (for this game) that are going on in Japan right now,” said Hovasse. “It’s a twelve-hour difference, it’s 6am on Wednesday (there). And, all of our games have been live on NHK.”
The night game between France and Canada for the privilege of playing the USA was the third close quarterfinal game of the day as the French came away victorious 68-63.
It was a back and forth game as Canada jumped out to a 29-16 at the start of the second quarter and held off run by France to hold the lead 37-32 at the half. There were 11 lead changes in the second half as Canada came back and grabbed a 52-50 lead with 9:28 to start the last quarter. Canada could not hold the lead falling behind by 6 points before cutting it to one, 60-59 with 1:58 remaining. Canada had opportunities to score but failed which forced them to put France on the line in the closing seconds.
France celebrates 68-63 Rio Olympics quarterfinal win over Canada to advance to Thursday’s semifinal vs. the USA
It was a heartbreaking loss for a Canadian team that achieved much over the course of the past 13-months winning the PanAmerican Games gold medal last July over the USA following up with the FIBA Americas championship a month later in Edmonton.
The key to those victories was UConn junior Kia Nurse who was so spectacular during the run last year but sat out most of the preliminary play up to the Olympics due to minor surgery after the victorious season at UConn. If Canada was going to achieve the medal round it need more from the rest of the team as Nurse was visibly not 100% going 3 for 17 in 31 minutes for 11 points. Canada could only muster 1-8 shooting from the three after a hot start 3 for 4.
France which was 3-2 in Pool A play gets to play in their second semifinal in a row but facing the USA the team they lost to in the 2012 London Olympic finals. Thursday’s USA-France semifinal is at 6 p.m. after the Serbia-Spain game scheduled for 2 p.m.
