USA Moves to 2 - 0 in Women’s Americup play with a win against Colombia.
Coming into the second day of competition at the FIIBA Women’s Americup, Team USA was looking to take over the top spot in Group B. Colombia lost a nail biter to Puerto Rico on day 1 and showed that they are a team to watch out for on the court. Early in the game Raegan Beers gave team USA the lead 1 - 0 by knocking down a free throw with 9:46 remaining in the first quarter. The Colombian team was able to score against Team USA, they took a 5 -3 lead when Manuela Rios scored with 8:02 remaining. Olivia Miles started a 7 - 0 run with a 3-Ptr, followed by Joyce Edwards and Gianna Kneepkens with layups that gave Team USA a 10 - 5 lead with 6:03 left in the first period. Colombia came right back to score five of the next eight points to make the score 13 - 10 behind two free throws by Daniela Gonzalez at 4:32. Team USA was able to string together some stops on defense and went on a 12 - 0 run to close the first quarter. Mikayla Blakes led the way with two - 3Ptrs and Forward - Hannah Stuelke made a pair of layups. Team USA would lead Colombia by a score of 25 - 10 at the end of the first quarter. The second quarter started with both teams getting some defensive stops, the first basket wasn't scored until 7:19 remaining on the clock. Following the layup by Manuela Rios Team USA scored 12 points in a row to take control of the game. USA - Forward - Joyce Edwards finished the run with 7 straight points of her own including 2 free throws at 5:06 remaining in the half. USA would keep the pressure on Colombia and finish the half with a 48 - 19 lead, Mikalyla Blakes closed out the scoring with a 3-Ptr. Team USA used balanced scoring from 9 players to build up this lead, Joyce Edwards and Mikayla Blakes led the way with 11 points a piece.
The second half of the game showed how strong the team from Colombia is with Team USA outlasting them by a 32 - 24 score. Both teams were playing on back to back days and maybe some fatigue added to the low scoring half from the USA team. Team USA finished the game with an 80 - 43 victory over this scrappy team from Colombia. Puerto Rico will be the next team on the schedule, they will be the strongest opponent so far for Team USA. Game will be on Monday - June 30 at 8:10 PM (EST)
Top Performers
Mikayla blakes - 15/Pts - 2/Reb - 2/Asst - 2/Stl ( 3 - 3Ptrs)
Joyce Edwards - 13/Pts - 9/Reb - 1/Asst - 1/Stl
Olivia Miles - 11/Pts - 8/Reb - 8/Asst
Gianna Kneepkens - 7/Pts - 3/Reb - 2/Asst
Raegan Beers - 7/Pts - 10/Reb - 1/Asst - 1/Stl
Kennedy Smith - 3/Pts - 5/Reb - 4 Asst - 2/Blk