Villeneuve-Dask, France – Team USA coach Cheryl Reeve is no stranger to dynasties. From 2011 to 2017, her Minnesota Lynx won the WNBA championship four times. Reeve served as an assistant coach during the 2016 Rio Olympics, where four of her players played key roles on the gold-medal squad.
So for Reeve, it’s probably a very gratifying feeling to see four starters from the defending two-time WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces on the bench now in France, and In a way, a familiar feeling.
It was the core from one of the most dominant WNBA teams in recent memory — go figure — that propelled the United States to an 87-68 victory over Germany in their final group game on Sunday night.
The game was fairly even for the first 15 minutes (Germany even led after the first quarter), but midway through the second quarter — just a minute after the U.S. took its first lead on an Alyssa Thomas layup — Reeve regained the lead. The game started. With the ace core on the field, the United States ended the first half on a 17-7 run.
Again, midway through the third quarter, Plum Young’s substitution (Wilson was already on the court) brought instant offensive energy to the U.S. team, which allowed Germany to cut the lead to 10 points to end the third quarter. 20-7 run.
It was a particularly efficient night for Young, who made 7 of 13 shots, including 5 of 8 three-pointers, and scored a team-high 19 points. In the first two games, Yang played a total of more than 20 minutes and only took one shot – a three-pointer against Japan in the first game. Her success from beyond the arc will be especially important for Team USA, which has struggled from long range throughout the tournament. Excluding Young’s performance against Germany, the United States shot just 23.6% from three-point range in the group stages.
Geno Auriemma was the head coach of a 2016 Bobcats team that featured four Bobcat players, and he knows the benefits of Team USA’s chemistry with its aces.
“Anytime you have a group of players that play together, win together, and have good chemistry, that’s invaluable to coaches and teams that don’t have a lot of practice time to prepare,” he said. “As individuals, Sylvia Falls, Simone Augustus, Maya Moore and Lindsay Whalen are incredible together.”
Team USA finished the group stage with a 3-0 record. The United States will enter the knockout round as the top seed as the Aussies spoiled the hosts’ hopes of remaining undefeated. The United States will face Nigeria in the quarterfinals on Wednesday as it continues its pursuit of its eighth consecutive Olympic gold medal since Barcelona in 1992.
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(Photo: Jesse D. Garabrant/Getty Images)
