Ohio State's Lavender, USA U19 Women Claim 64-62 Exhibition Win Over Australia
SANTA CRUZ DE LA PALMA, Canary Islands (July 19, 2007) ? Led by 14 points from
Monica Wright (Virginia / Woodbridge, Va.) and 10 points from
Maya Moore (Collins Hill H.S. / Lawrenceville, Ga.), the USA Women?s U19 World Championship Team withstood a resilient Australian squad to secure a late, 64-62 win in the first of three exhibition contests in Santa Cruz de La Palma, Canary Islands, Thursday evening.
?There was a lot of good play, but basically we made a ton of mistakes,? said USA U19 and DePaul University (Ill.) head coach
Doug Bruno. ?I think that?s to be expected with how little time we?ve had to practice, but we have to clean up our game, and we won?t make any excuses.
?We had some opportunities where we were in position to put the game away, and we didn?t. We don?t know each other well enough yet. The coaches don?t know the players yet, and it?s just been too fast. But that?s why we are here in the Canary Islands?to come together as a team.?
Bruno is being assisted on the sidelines by
Cynthia Cooper-Dyke of Prairie View A&M University (Texas) and
Carol Owens of Northern Illinois University.
Both teams struggled to shoot from the floor throughout, and the USA headed into the final stanza nursing a 49-44 lead. From there, Australia slowly closed the narrow gap and cut the U.S. lead to two, 60-58 at 2:40. Katie Ebzery then finished an old-fashioned 3-point play to give the Aussies their first fourth quarter advantage, 61-60, with just 1:58 remaining.