USA Shoots past Aussies on NetScouts Basketball Women’s China Tour

Carl Berman

12 May 2013

Blog

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We will have a separate article tomorrow on our “Useful Community Activity” which was a visit to a High School (yes, on Sunday).  It was a lot of fun and we have some great pictures.

Australia beat China last night 58-51.  The Aussies  jumped out to a 21-9 1st quarter lead and then held on for a 27-26 halftime lead after China stormed back into the game.  The second half was another grind it out type of half with the Aussies taking the lead and securing it late for the  seven point win.  The arena in Dong Xiang was a complete sellout at 6,500.  The win moved the Aussies to 4-3 and into a 2nd place tie with China at 4-3.  The USA led at 5-2 and Brazil was 1-6.

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We just learned today that our game against the Brazilians yesterday was the first ever International basketball competition played in Dong Xiang and also the first in the new arena here in town.  That is a nice memory for both the Americans and Brazilians to take home with them.

The NetScouts Basketball USA All-Stars came out of the gates charging and played their best game of the tournament with an 85-63 win over the Australian team in front of 5,000 fans this afternoon in Dong Xiang.  Jamie Russell continued her stellar play with 15 points while Kate Thompson had 14 and Adrian Ritchie 13 for the USA.

Jaime Russell

The Americans have had some offensive struggles throughout their tour of China but this afternoon they broke out by matching their highest point total (85 vs. Brazil) and having their best shooting game of the event.  They were able to shoot 24-of-44 (54%) on two-pointers and 10-of-17 (58%) from behind the three point arc, Thompson was 4-of-9 and Ritchie 3-of-4.  It was a welcome change from our shooting struggles of the past several games.

Offensively it was a nice mixture of attacking dribble drives, the post up game, and timely perimeter shooting while on defense the American squad kept the Aussies off balance by changing defenses and held the green & gold to just 39% shooting on the game and out rebounded the Aussies 37 to 23.  The Aussies, however, were scoring plenty from the foul line making 19-of-23 from the charity stripe.  They were led in scoring by Casey Samuels (6’0 SG) who had a great game scoring 19 points and making 3-of-3 from behind the arc.

Kate Thompson

Statistics

USA (85)

Meghan Fulps  (#4)  5’7  PG (Santa Clara)  9 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists

Adrian Ritchie  (#5) 5’11  G (Green Bay)  13 points, 1 rebound, 1 steal

Jamie Russell   (#6) 5’8  G (Illinois State)  15 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists

Jacqui Kalin   (#7) 5’8  PG (Northern Iowa)  9 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists

Kate Thompson  (#9) 6’4  F (Michigan)  14 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks

Sam Ostarello  (#11) 6’2  F (Purdue)  2 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal

Lauren Oosdyke  (#12) 5’11  F (Northern Colorado)  3 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists

Samantha Heck   (#14) 6’2  F/C  (Evansville)  5 points, 7 rebounds

Stephanie Sension  (#15) 6’3  F/C (Green Bay)  9 points, 6 rebounds, 1 block

Morgan Johnson   (#16) 6’5  C (Iowa)   6 points, 6 rebounds, 2 blocks

Adrian Ritchie

Australia (63)

4 Vanessa Panousis – 5 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist

5 Tiana Mangakahia – 3 points, 1 assist

6 Alex Wilson- 6 points, 1 steal

7 Louise Brown – 1 point, 1 rebound

8 Stephanie Talbot – 1 point, 2 rebound

9 Jessica Good – No stats

10 Darcee Garbin – 7 points, 3 rebounds

11 Carley Mijovic – 12 points, 4 rebounds

12 Tahlia Tupaea – 2 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist

13 Lauren Schert – 4 points, 2 rebounds

14 Casey Samuels – 19 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal

15 Alicia Froling – 3 points, 2 rebounds

Brazil and China play tonight at 8pm. We’ll get more photos uploaded later today. Happy Mother’s Day!