USA Women Down Australia, 84-55, at Opals World Challenge
9/7/2002 10:41:15 AM | Women's Basketball
NEWCASTLE, Austrailia - The 2002 USA Basketball World Championship Team ran its record to 2-0 with an 84-55 win versus Australia at the four-nation Opals World Challenge. Syracuse head coach Marianna Freeman is an assistant coach for Team USA.
The Orlando Miracle's Shannon Johnson came off the bench to score a game-high 20 points for the U.S. Team USA is now assured a spot in the tournament's championship game on September 10.
"I'm really happy, I thought we played very well defensively," said USA and Houston Comets head coach Van Chancellor. "We did a lot of really good things offensively, scored 84 points, we played all 12 players so I'm really happy. It's bettern than I thought we could have played tonight. We played so well tonight. We brought a really good game and that caused them a lot of problems."
Sheryl Swoopes added 14 points, while Lisa Leslie scored 11 pionts and grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds.
The team is using the Oplas World Challenge as a tune-up for the FIBA World Championship which will be held in nine different cities in China September 14-25. Brazil, Australia and France are the other nations in the pre-World Championship event.
For more information on the 2002 USA Baketball World Championship Team visit www.usabasketball.com.
