USA Basketball, Goestenkors ready for semifinals of FIBA Americans Championship in search of Olympic berth
VALDIVIA, Chile -- The USA Women's National Team gained the No. 1 seed in group play at the FIBA Americans Championship on Friday with an 85-37 victory over Canada. Team USA (3-0), with Texas head coach Gail Goestenkors on the sidelines as one of its three assistant coaches, moves into Saturday's medal round semifinals possessing preliminary round Group B's No. 1 seed. USA will face the winner of Friday evening's Chile-Argentina game at a time TBA. The two semifinals and the Sunday, Sept. 30 championship game will be televised live on NBA TV. Only the winner of the FIBA Americas Championship earns a berth in the 2008 Olympics. Leading the way for the USA squad against Canada were WNBA standouts Tina Thompson (14 points) and DeLisha Milton-Jones (12 points, team-high seven rebounds), while Tennessee's Candace Parker added 12 points and grabbed six rebounds Thompson scored eight points and Parker added four more as the USA jumped out to a 14-2 lead. Although Canada out-scored the U.S. 11-3 over the final 4:33 of the opening period to cut the gap to 17-13, the American's cranked up their defensive intensity and allowed Canada just six points in the second period and only nine points in both the third and fourth quarters.
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