In Pool B of the women’s event, the USA played China in the Carioca Arena’s penultimate game of the day.
It was an end to end opening quarter, the USA capitalising both in and around the key to end the first 10 minutes ahead by 21-8. China found the basket in the second quarter, but the USA continued to pile on the pressure to enter half time ahead by 39-20.
A strong third quarter by the USA saw the team continue push forwards by 59-26. The final quarter was another fantastic battle with just one point separating the teams in the 10 minutes: the USA edging it by 11-10 to close out a 70-36 victory.
The USA’s top scorers with 24 points apiece were Becca Murray and Desi Miller.
Becca Murray said: “The game was good: we knew that we had to come out and be aggressive – we knew we had to stop their speed and just help each other out doing that. It was good to play this game right before the Netherlands because the Netherlands also have a lot of speed, so it was good preparation for stopping their cuts as well because they have bigger players that we’ll need to stop.”
In terms of pool standings, Desi Miller added: “We’re not jumping ahead games and thinking way too far in the future: we’re staying one game at a time in our minds, so today we focused on China and what they were going to do and their tendencies. Now, we’re going to focus on the Netherlands and what we need to do to play our best game against them.”
Netherlands and what we need to do to play our best game against them.”
For full match statistics click here https://www.rio2016.com/en/paralympics/wheelchair-basketball-womens-group-b-preliminary-wb-11