A’Ja Wilson #9 of Group United States shoots between Valeriane Ayayi (L) and Janelle Salaun of Group France in the course of the Girls’s Gold Medal recreation Sunday on the Paris Olympics.
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PARIS – It wasn’t nice basketball. Nevertheless it didn’t need to be. It was simply sufficient.
Led by A’Ja Wilson, who scored 21 factors, the U.S. girls’s group beat France on Sunday, 67-66, changing into the primary basketball group in Olympic historical past to win eight consecutive gold medals. The U.S. has now gained 61 video games in a row on the Summer time Video games courting again to 1992.
This win didn’t include the convenience with which this group usually performs, with the People repeatedly examined by the tenacious French group and an enormous pro-French crowd at Bercy Area. They had been handled to a heart-stopping second with France star Gabby Williams sinking a long-range jumper on the buzzer. However the shot was dominated a two-pointer, not a 3, giving the U.S. a one-point win.
“It was somewhat bit ugly. However it doesn’t matter what whether or not it’s good, ugly, no matter we simply wish to come out on prime, and we did that, and we go house with this gold,” Breanna Stewart advised reporters afterwards.
Kahleah Copper #7 of Group United States goes up for a basket in the course of the girls’s gold medal recreation between France and the U.S. on Sunday.
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The primary half of the sport was extremely disjointed, with the U.S. seeming unable to search out any offensive rhythm towards a really bodily French protection. France briefly took the lead, 25-23 proper earlier than halftime, however the U.S. fired again and was capable of tie it proper earlier than the buzzer, bringing it to a 25-25 tie on the half.
When play resumed, the U.S. didn’t rating till greater than three minutes into the quarter. At one level they trailed by as many as ten factors.
“We had a tough time attending to our id of with the ability to play and transition and rating,” mentioned U.S. girls’s basketball coach Cheryl Reeve. “We had been the 2 greatest defensive groups within the event, and we each confirmed that. It was ugly, nevertheless it was ugly for a purpose. We each made it onerous for one another.”
Guard Jackie Younger, who has been a key scorer for the usteam within the quarterfinals and semifinals, fouled out within the fourth quarter. However not earlier than the U.S. rallied with key three-pointers and free throws by Kelsey Plum.
It was France’s first look within the Olympic gold medal basketball recreation because the 2012 Video games in London, when the U.S. beat France by 36 factors. With Sunday’s loss, France wins the silver medal and Australia claimed bronze by beating Belgium within the third-place recreation.
France’s Marine Fauthoux reacts after a 3 level basket in the course of the girls’s gold medal basketball recreation between the USA and host France.
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Brittney Griner, who was competing internationally for the primary time since was freed in a prisoner swap 20 months in the past with Russia, mentioned that upon profitable, her feelings had been “in every single place” in the course of the medal ceremony following the sport.
“I used to be on the rostrum, flag was going up, as quickly because the anthem began tears began coming down my face,” Griner mentioned. “I didn’t suppose I’d be right here, like I mentioned earlier than, after which to be right here, profitable gold for my nation, representing when my nation fought so onerous for me to even be standing right here. This gold medal’s gonna maintain a particular place amongst the opposite two I used to be lucky to win.”
It was a giant basketball weekend for the U.S., with each the boys’s and girls’s basketball groups dealing with host France for gold medals.
Someday earlier the U.S. males’s group held off France, 98-87 to win its fifth-straight Olympic gold. The boys’s group went 6-0 within the Paris Video games and gained gold.
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