From Deseret News archives:
The women get it done
This U.S. team uses defense to knock off Czech Republic
The shots came from every angle, and they all were going in — or so it seemed.
"I don't think for a while we thought they were going to miss," U.S. forward Tina Thompson said.
Was a second U.S. basketball team about to be humbled?
Not a chance.
Thompson and her teammates turned up the defensive pressure, dominated on the boards and used two big scoring runs on their way to an 80-61 victory on Monday. After watching the U.S. men in a stunning 92-73 loss to Puerto Rico the night before, the women could leave the arena with a smile instead of scowl.
"I think anytime your team comes and watches the men's team get beat, you want to make sure that doesn't happen to you," U.S. coach Van Chancellor said. "I thought in the pregame today I probably had a little more fire than I usually would because I didn't want to experience that."
The Czech Republic had Chancellor squirming for much of the first half, though.
With effective screens, crisp passes and deadly shooting, the Czechs executed flawlessly in jumping to a 21-12 lead. And this was a Czech team without its best player, 6-foot-4 Lucie Blahuskova, who's sidelined by an ankle injury.
But the United States kept taking the ball aggressively to the basket, got the Czech starters in foul trouble and eventually got it together. The Americans took the lead for good with a 14-0 run late in the first half, then opened the second half with a 16-2 burst to blow it open.
"We knew we had to play better defense and attack the boards," said Lisa Leslie, who led the United States with 15 points and 10 rebounds. "Every game is a different game and you do what you have to do to win that game. It's not about what we can do, it's about doing what we have to do.
"We saw today we couldn't settle for jump shots."
So the United States attacked inside with Leslie, Thompson (12 points) and Yolanda Griffith (10 points). Final tally on inside points: The United States 46, Czech Republic 10. The rebounding margin was almost as wide, a 43-22 edge for the Americans.
"The rebounding was very tough for us," said Zuzana Klimesova, a former Vanderbilt standout who led the Czech Republic with 18 points. "We were trying to box out quite a bit and they were just jumping over us."
Almost as important were the fouls on the Czech Republic's floor leader, Romana Hamzova. She stayed in the game after picking up two fouls in the first 41 seconds, but coach Jan Bobrovsky had to sit her after she got foul No. 4 with 1:17 still to play in the first quarter — with disastrous results for her team.
