ZARAGOZA, Spain – Untested, unfamiliar, unbeatable.  These are the hallmarks of this 2016 Women’s USA u17 team.  It was these things that Team USA had to overcome with a 56-45 win against a stubborn and athletic France in the FIBA u17 quarterfinals on Wednesday evening.

This was not the typically acclaimed France team entering the contest with a 2-2 record. France’s best test was a 55-48 loss to undefeated Australia, the same team the USA faces in the semifinals on Friday. France has athletic forwards and enough speed to challenge every USA shot and they did.

The USA led for more than 36 minutes in the game but it felt closer as France matched the USA basket for basket, turnover for turnover, missed inside shot for missed inside shot and could never pull away going into the third quarter. A Christyn Williams (Little Rock, AR) jump shot gave the USA a 35-29 lead with 5:46 left. France’s 5-11 wing Emmanuelle Tahane’s eight points between a pair of USA guard Destanni Henderson (Fort Myers, FL) foul shot gave the French a 38-37 lead with 2:50 left in the 3rd quarter. Fifteen seconds later the entire mood of the game changed for the USA when seldom used 6-2 wing Samatha Brunelle (Ruckersville, VA) hit a big 3 to push the USA back into a lead (40-38) they would never surrender.

The rest of the game was a battle on the boards as France and the USA chased offensive rebounds (USA 21, France 15) but the longer height of the Americans enabled them to push open the lead midway through the last quarter for the win. The USA outrebounded France 53-37 and had 10 of 12 players score in the game with Christyn Williams leading the USA with 17 points, 3 steals. It was a group effort.

Next up the USA team gets to face Australia in the pivotal FIBA u17s semifinals. This is the same team that played a “friendly’ game against the USA before the start of competition. The USA fell behind 19 points to only rally in the end to win 70-67. If there is any team that matches length with the USA it is Australia.  Both teams will enter the game with 5-0 records but the Aussies have a year more seasoned play versus the USA team. The road to defend the USA’s u17 title will be tested on Friday afternoon at 4 pm (local time, 10 am EST).

OTHER SEMIS:  Two exciting top bracket games preceded the Australia-Italy and France-USA games with close contests, the biggest stunner being a 58-56 win by Italy over Canada which could never find enough outside shooting. Italy’s strong inside game kept it close until the end when Canada failed on its last three attempts at the basket. What put Canada in the position of a last second shot to tie the game was a failure at the foul line. Canada hit on only 18 of 33 free throw attempts adding to their 29% shooting from the field.  It was a stark ending for a team that won the 2015 Americas title beating Brazil which defeated the USA.  The loss meant that only this newly constructed USA team remains from the Americas in the winner bracket.

The next game was also a last quarter comeback for China which beat host Spain 55-51 in a quarterfinals top bracket game. This was China’s bigger win and highest advancement in their u17 history. It was all made possible by 6-7 center Xu Han who played 12 seconds short of the entire game. Han scored 18 points, grabbed 18 rebounds and punched 5 blocked shots, most effectively in the last quarter to take China into the semifinals vs. Italy on Friday.

The game everyone was waiting for was Oceana champion Australia vs. the Euro champion Czech Republic and it lived up to expectation with the Aussies down 1 after the first quarter. Tough defense by 5-5 point guard Monique Conti (4 assists) and the inside presence of 6-5 center Ezi Magbegor (20 points) enable Australia to slowly wear out the Czechs after three quarters for an 18 point margin. Australia got scoring from 10 of the 12 players who got minutes to set up Friday’s semifinal showdown with the USA which, in some minds, is really the championship game.

NOTES: A long day of basketball started off with Mexico getting its first win of the tournament in a 13-16 classification game with a 60-57 win over Korea. It took Mexico until the last quarter to go on a 21-8 binge to win the game. In the first of the two 9-12 consolation games, Latvia surprisingly crushed Mali 82-53. What made this score surprising was the outstanding play in the preliminary rounds by Mali which won two games, more than any other African team in history of the u17s. The other 9-12 game had Japan outscoring Portugal, the Euro u16 runner-up, over the last three quarters to take a 71-59 win and advance to the 9-10 consolation game versus Latvia.

Four teams that usually are in the hunt for a medal are out and play the only games on Thursday, the double 5-8 consolation games. First up is Canada facing Spain at 10:45am and then France getting the Czech at 1 pm. Both times are EST and the games on both on YouTube to watch.