USA U21 Women Claw Back From 16-Point Deficit For 90-88 Win Over Australia

Wiggins Scores 30 points in victory

June 29, 2007

From USA Basketball

MOSCOW -- Never giving up, despite falling into an early double-digit deficit, the USA Basketball Women's U21 World Championship Team (1-0) tipped-off play Friday morning at the 2007 FIBA U21 World Championship with a hard-fought 90-88 victory over Australia (0-1) in Moscow, Russia. Paving the USA's road to victory were USA team captain Candice Wiggins' (Stanford / San Diego, Calif.) 30 points and Crystal Langhorne's (Maryland / Willingboro, N.J.) double-double of 24 points and 16 rebounds, including 10 on the offensive end.

"It was coming from everybody, the bench, the coaches, the people on the court, everybody was always telling us we're going to get back," said Wiggins. "Everyone was believing in it, it was really genuine. In our hearts we knew we were going to come back. That says a lot about our team and I'm so excited. It was our first game, but it was a huge win for us."

In other Group B action, Spain (1-0) needed double overtime to score a 90-86 victory over Brazil (0-1), while Hungary (1-0) defeated Japan (0-1) 77-58. In Group A, China opens against France, Russia will meet Canada and the day concludes with a match between Mali and Belgium.

The American women continue play on June 30 against Brazil at 8:15 p.m. (12:15 p.m. EDT) and face Hungary on July 1 at 3:45 p.m. (7:45 a.m. EDT). Following a day off, the USA resumes preliminary round play on July 3 against Spain at 1:30 p.m. (5:30 a.m. EDT) and on July 4 the squad will celebrate the country's birthday with an 11:15 a.m.

(3:15 a.m. EDT) tip against Japan. Quarterfinals are slated for July 6, the semifinals will be held on July 7 and the finals are scheduled for July 8.

"There was a lack of readiness on our team's part," said USA U21 National Team and Duke University (N.C.) head coach Joanne P. McCallie. "You're excited to play, but being excited to play doesn't mean you're ready to play. We just weren't quite ready. Heck, Australia's anthem didn't even get played. They were upset to begin the game. Then they came out very strong, they hit some big shots and established momentum early. For us, we had to claw. That was a blue collar game.

The U.S., which took its first lead of the game with less than 2:00 remaining, lagged by 16 points (27-11) eight minutes into the contest. By halftime the USA had cut it to 44-35 and with 10 minutes to play it was a seven-point, 70-63, game.

"We were out of it, we weren't playing our game," said Langhorne. "We were really slow. That's what happens when you're playing a great team like Australia. They can shoot the ball so well and it put us into a hole early. We knew our defense would come in sooner or later and we were rebounding and we knew we could come back."

By the 6:02 mark the gap had narrowed to 79-73 and the U.S. was gaining momentum. Jolene Anderson (Wisconsin / Port Wing, Wis.) scored on an offensive rebound, followed by another Langhorne put-back and with 4:28 remaining the USA trailed by just two points, 79-77. However, each time the USA attempted to pull ahead Australia countered and with the clock showing 2:51 the Sapphires had upped their lead to five, 85-80.

The USA refused to give up and as Wiggins scored five points in a 7-0 run, the USA's defense began to stifle Australia into turnovers and poor shots. With 1:26 to play Wiggins was fouled from the top of the key and converted the 3-point play to give the red, white and blue its first lead of the game, 87-85.

Australia's Renae Camino, who notched 18 points in the first half on 7-of-12 from the field in the first half, scored her lone points of the second with a 3-pointer at 1:07. It was Australia's final points, giving her squad a narrow 88-87 edge. With 48 seconds left Wiggins was well-screened, wide open, got a great feed from Courtney Paris (Oklahoma / Piedmont, Calif.) and swished in a three to put the U.S. back on top, 90-88.

"She's from Southern California and three times in high school we ended up playing her team in state championship," said Paris. "I've watched her knock down so many big shots. She's the girl that wants to take them. You're always worried when you're on the other team. Knowing that she's on my team and she's going to make that shot, I want to give it to her because I have full belief in her. If she misses it, I know Lang (Crystal Langhorne) or myself will get that rebound. It's fun to play with players like that."

Anderson came up with a steal with about a half minute to go, but Australia's defenders wouldn't allow the Americans to cross the line and the refs whistled a back-court violation on the USA. Australia inbounded the ball wtih 14.6 ticks on the clock, worked the ball around looking for a shot, but the U.S. was switching on everything. After all the threes Australia had made, and how hard the U.S. fought to claw its way into the lead, there was no way the Americans were about to give it up easily.

With the pressure turned on, Australia's shot was off and Abby Waner (Duke / Highlands Ranch, Colo.) came up with the rebound. Australia tried to force the USA into another back court whistle, however, the Americans got it over the line in under eight seconds and finally the buzzer signaled the end of the USA's first test at the FIBA U21 World Championship.

In addition to the contributions from Langhorne and Wiggins, Paris had 14 points and seven boards, while Anderson finished with nine points.

Camino's 21 points led Australia, Kathleen MacLeod had 20, Abby Bishop scored 16, Jenna O'Hea had 12 and Elyse Penaluna finished with 10 points.

The USA outrebounded Australia 45-22 and came close to the Aussies total rebounding output with 21 on the offensive end. However, the USA coughed up the ball 18 times and Australia had 15 turnovers. Australia's bread and butter was beyond the arc as the squad hit nearly half their field goals (29-62 FGs, 14-31 3pt FGs) from afar.

McCallie is being assisted by collegiate head coaches Sam Dixon of Furman University (S.C.), an assistant to McCallie last summer with the 2006 USA U20 National Team, and Arizona State University's Charli Turner Thorne.

Prior to arriving in Russia, the USA spent a week training in France and completed a three-game sweep against the French U21 World Championship Team. On June 18 the USA won in Monte Carlo, Monaco, to a tune of 82-59, on June 19 in Antibes the score was 81-68 and on June 21 the series concluded in La Garde with the USA on top 71-57.

The USA is hoping to defend its world title in this age group, open to athletes 21-years-old or younger (born on or after Jan. 1, 1986), at the 2007 FIBA U21 World Championship, which runs through July 8.