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USA will get to defeat Australia on their way to the final while Russia will face France in a game which will essentially determine the silver medalists.
USA displayed defense that should leave Australian guards having nightmares about their upcoming semifinal game. While their offense needed some time to warm up, their defense was on point from the get-go. All in all they forced Canada to turn the ball over 26 times in the game.
USA – Canada 91-48
USA: Taurasi 15, Fowles 12, Parker 12, Moore 11, McCoughtry 11, Augustus 9, Catchings 9
Canada: Smith 13, Aubry 10, Pilypaitis 6
Carrie Graf made a change in the starting lineup selecting Jennifer Screen in place of Jenna O’Hea. If it was to stop Lijie Miao it didn’t work, if it was for any other reason – it didn’t work either way. With China showing some nice things on defense it took Australia three quarters to get their bigs involved before they took over in the fourth quarter.
Neither this, nor any other Australian game in this tournament have shown that they could be competitive against USA. That semi final could get pretty ugly for those who had read Australians talking about their aim of winning gold before the tournament. The way they’ve been playing they should be happy with a medal.
Australia – China 75-60
Australia: Cambage 17, Jackson 12, Batkovic 10, Bishop 9
China: Ma 15, Miao 13, X.Chen 9
Boris Sokolovsky, not to be outdone by Carrie Graf, went on with substituting 4 of the players who started their previous game. 3 of them have had a pretty poor tournament so far, so that move didn’t get points in the logic department.
Only good it did was that when the bench players substituted in, the Russian play actually improved, them even getting a 12 point lead in the second quarter. Being outrebounded and suffering an overall lack of height, only way for Turkey to get back in the game was to get hot, which they conveniently got. After a going 9/14 in the third quarter the score was even going in the last one. There with each team doing some dumb stuff in the final minutes, the Russians proved to be less dumb than their opponents in the given night.
This Russian team hasn’t switched gears as they did last year in the playoffs, so they will in no way be the favorites in the semifinal.
Turkey – Russia 63-66
Turkey: Yilmaz 22, Hollingsworth 12, Vardarli 12, Tuncluer 9
Russia: Hammon 19, Belyakova 10, Vieru 10, Petrakova 10
With their game in the second half the Czech Republic and France didn’t disappoint. Using their height advantage, zone defense and defensive breakdowns by the French, Czech Republic stormed out to a 13 point lead in the third quarter. Fourth quarter couldn’t have been more different as France started to score on almost all of their trips down the floor to which the Czechs couldn’t respond on offense nor on defense.
It was again Dumerc with a helping hand from Endene Miyem who carried the team in late stages of the game. Despite leading her team to a gold medal in 2009 European Championships Dumerc has for some reason become a revelation to some just now, which really is a shame.
France – Czech Republic 71-68
France: Dumerc 23, Miyem 14, Yacoubou 9, Gomis 9
Czech Republic: Viteckova 17, Burgrova 16, Vesela 12, Elhotova 12
