Men and Women Dominate Olympic Hoops

For the Women’s Basketball team it was the 4th consecutive time that they have won the Gold medal. For Lisa Leslie it was extra special for it was also her 4th gold medal in basketball, where she has an unblemished record of 32-0 with the USA team over the 4 Olympic appearances. Team USA was able to make easy work of Australia in the Gold medal game as they would beat them 92-65. In the Bronze medal game Russia was able to withhold China to win 94-81.

For those unaware, the Women’s basketball team was well represented by LSU alumni. Seimone Augustus and Sylvia Fowles were vital parts of the team that won this gold medal. Augustus played in all 8 games tallying a total of 141 minutes. She would finish the Olympics averaging 7.9 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 1.4 assists per game. Augustus scored in double figures twice as she scored 12 points against New Zealand and Mali. In the gold medal game Augustus had 4 points and 6 rebounds.

Fowles on the other hand was much more effective; she also played in all 8 games for a combined playing time of 143 minutes. Fowles led the team in both points and rebounds with 13.4 and 8.4 respectively. Here biggest game was against Korea, where she scored 26 points and had 14 rebounds. She was also second on the team with blocked shots which totaled up to 7, only behind the likes of Lisa Leslie who had 11 throughout the games. With the gold medal on the line Fowles tallied 13 points and pulled down 5 rebounds.
On the Men’s side Argentina, without their star player Manu Ginobili, were able to hold off Lithuania to win the Bronze game by the score of 87-75. In the Gold game was a rematch from a prelim game between team USA and Spain. In the first meeting of these two teams team USA out hustled, out shot, and completely initiated their opponents on their way to a 37 point victory with the final being 119-82. Anyone who thought that this game would be more of the same had another thing coming.

Spain definitely came into the Gold game thinking upset. Spain would give team USA its biggest deficit it had seen the whole Olympics at 5 points, and would keep the game close being down only 8 points at the half. Spain would also get as close as 2 points from team USA, but were never able to get any closer, as team USA who had never trailed in the second half during the Olympics, would win the Gold medal by the score of 118-107.
Although the defense is what had gotten team USA to the Gold medal game, Coach Krzyzewski’s team was able to power through with its offense shooting 60% total, and 13 of 28 from beyond the arc for 46%. It seemed whenever Team USA would start to pull away Spain would make a run of their own to put themselves right back in the game. Thankfully in the end it was Team USA who had all the answers with their triumphant win. Team USA went undefeated in the Olympics going 8-0.

Dwayne Wade led team USA to the win with his 27 points. Kobe Bryant also had a big hand in the game scoring 20 points and dishing out 6 assists. New Orleans Native Chris Paul held his own scoring 13 points and recording 5 assists. Rudy Fernandez led the way for Spain with 22 points and Pau Gasol was not far behind with 21 points of his own and 6 rebounds. It was however the outstanding play of Juan Carlos Navarro who scored 18 points and had 4 assists that kept Spain in the game, with his key shots.

The “Redeem Team” was able to do what it had hoped to, go to China and take back the gold with them. Although USA had stumbled the past few years they were more than eager to show that they are still the team to beat. With the talent level rising in the other countries team USA was still able to distance themselves from the others. Even though they breezed their way to the Gold medal game, Spain gave them the fight of their lives and what a game it was. So for now it is safe to say that “the dream has been redeemed”, USA is back atop the basketball world.