RIO DE JANEIRO — In Spain there is, as in other countries, special teams that perform in a sport over years, even decades to such acclaim they are called Generation teams. In men’s basketball is has been the last decade of play by such names as Gasol brothers (Marc and Pau), Rudy Fernandez, Nikola Mirotic, Serge Ibaka, Felipe Reyes, Juan Carlos Navarro (5th Olympics), Jose Calderon and even Ricky Rubio for the Spaniards.
Their run started in 2006 with the FIBA World Championship, two silver Olympic medals (2008, 2012) and FIBA EuroBasket winners (2009, 2011, 2015) and this year’s Rio Olympics semifinals against the USA.
The Spanish women are about to take that same measure of acclaim getting to their first Olympic medal round and gold medal final in Rio after defeating Serbia for the second time (pool and semifinals) in this event. Their reward is the most dominate team in the world, the USA.
This history-making run was not easy. Spain had to regroup after failing to make the 2012 Olympics. Star wing Alba Torrens (16.1 pts, 29 min.) headed a new generation of players into the Spanish ranks – long guard and wings with enough big guard skills to be an outside-inside threat. The other addition was star then 6-3 center Astou Ndour (13.6 pts, 28 min.) who burst onto the scene at the 2011 FIBA u19 world championships in Chile, the same event where fellow Olympians Breanna Stewart (USA) and guard Rui Machida of Japan made All-Tournament.
Spain’s next step was to take the 2013 FIBA EuroBasket championship behind 6-3 power forward Sancho Lyttle (18.4 pts, 11.4 reb.) who missed the 2015 EuroBasket and now the Rio Olympics due to a foot injury with the WNBA Altantia Dream. That team featured present rostered players Marta Xargay, Laia Palau, Laura Nicholls and Torrens.
Ndour was the 2013 U20 MVP for champion Spain. Point guard Leticia Romero (Florida State) and Laura Quevedo played with Ndour on the 2014 u20 runner-up to France. Later that year Romero suited up for the 2014 Women’s World Championship runner-up in Istanbul after losing 77-64 behind USA’s Maya Moore 17 points.
Spain again will have its hands full even with a USA team possibly playing without four-time Olympian lead guard Sue Bird (19.4 minutes) who is listed day-to-day for action. Team USA can call upon a veteran lineup with Diana TaurasiI , who plays on UMCC Ekaterinburg with both USA Brittney Griner and Torrens, and is averaging 15.4 points in 24 minutes of play in seven games followed by Maya Moore (11.7 points, 19.7 min), Griner (16.3 10.6 and 10 points, 14.3 min).
Even though Spain will exchange Ndour for Lyttle and 5-9 Nuria Martinez for 6-0 Laura Quevedo for this repeat of the 2014 WWC Istanbul finals everyone knows that this is the Olympics.
“I couldn’t be happier, it’s really a dream,” said Romero who plays for ACC Florida State head women’s basketball coach Sue Semrau. “Definitely – that was the goal – getting a medal. We never talked about being gold as that’s really hard to do. Nobody thought we were going to get here especially after Sanchez;s injury. I feel like that was the goal and we don’t want to stop here. We want to compete and we want to beat them.”
The history of the moment was not lost on Torrens.
“I feel lucky to be in this moment,” said Torrens. “And for all the people who worked for this to happen, the coaches, not just the player, the coaches, the people here today and the many people who worked all these years to get this.”
GOLD GAME NOTES: This game will be a repeat of the 2014 Women’s World Championship final in Istanbul where the USA dominated from the start and had a 48-29 halftime lead. Spain has 10 returning players from 2014. The USA roster returns nine players with guard Odyssey Sims, wing Candice Dupree and forward Nnemkadi Ogwumike missing from the 2014 Istanbul roster. The USA height average is 6-2 while Spain is listed at 6-0. Romero wore jersey number 5 instead of 2 for EuroBasket and Olympics. Nicholls moved from 2 to 4 after the Eurobasket. Ndour who missed both events sports number 45. Laia Palau is the oldest player on the Spain roster at 36 years old and a team average of 26 while the USA team age average is 30. The USA leading scorers in Istanbul were Moore (15.3pts), Griner (12.3pts), Tina Charles (10.7pts), Seimone Augustus (9.3pts) and Taurasi (8.8pts). The USA got to the final in 2014 beating Australia in semifinals 82-70. The Aussies lost to Spain here in the quarterfinals. The USA could finish its 6th Olympic title with a 49 game winning streak. Taurasi and Tamika Catching would tie Lisa Leslie (’96-’08) and Theresa Edwards (’84-’00) for most games with Olympic game at 32.
