July 30, 2003

SIBENIK, Croatia (July 30, 2003) -- After holding a four-point lead at halftime, and with the help of 14 points apiece from Seimone Augustus (Louisiana State / Baton Rouge, La.) and Nicole Ohlde (Kansas State / Clay Center, Kan.), the USA Young Women's National Team (4-1) advanced to the medal quarterfinals round after defeating host Croatia (2-3) 83-58 on Wednesday night in Sibenik, Croatia.

"We wanted to come out and play intense and get ready for the medal round games," said Augustus. "And what better way to do that than against the home team with a home town crowd. At halftime coach Foster said that we needed to pick it up, we were letting them stay around, they were hanging with us when they shouldn't have been. We needed to focus on getting ready for the medal round games and the second half prepared us for that."

The USA, which finished tied with Brazil and France after posting identical 4-1 records, finished in third place in Group A as a result of FIBA's tie-breaking formula (point differential between tied teams). France finished as the top team in Group A, Brazil finished second, the USA third and Croatia fourth. All four teams will advance to the medal quarterfinals round, while the Czech Republic (1-4) and South Korea (0-5) will play for 9-12 place. The USA will face Australia (4-1), second place finishers in Group B, on Friday, Aug. 1 at 2:15 p.m. (8:15 a.m. EDT) for the right to advance to the medal semifinals.

"We weren't moving our feet, we were making decisions based on U.S. basketball. In the States we penetrate to get to the basket, in Europe a lot of times people penetrate to draw the defense and kick back to the 3-point shooter," stated USA and Ohio State head mentor Jim Foster. "In the first half we were overreacting to the ball, allowing them to them to kick back to their 3-point shooters. In the second half I told them to be more accountable to the ball, keep the ball in front of them. We obviously did a better job of that in the second half.

"Australia plays as hard as anybody here," added Foster on the USA's next opponent. "They have a lot of pride in who they are and I think that's a good team for us to have to play against."

After jumping out to an 11-0 lead to start the game, it seemed as if the USA might run away with it from the beginning. However, Croatia came back on a 7-2 run and with 2:53 remaining in the quarter trailed 13-7. The U.S. scored the game's next seven points, earning a 20-7 advantage at 1:24. But Croatia would not go away quietly and closed out the quarter on a 7-0 spurt to pull within six, 20-14, after 10 minutes of play.

With 5:47 to go before the half the score was still separated by six points, 30-24, before the USA upped its lead to 35-24 with 4:44 to go. Again Croatia fought back and with 2:28 left in the half closed to 35-32. By halftime, all that separated the USA and Croatia were four points, 40-36.

Croatia managed to cut it to two, 43-41, in less than a minute of play in the third quarter, but the USA fired off 12 straight points to gain a 55-41 advantage at 4:03. Shawntinice Polk (Arizona / Hanford, Calif.) kicked off the run with two straight buckets, followed by another four points from Augustus. On Croatia's next trip down the court Augustus came away with a steal, which resulted in a Cappie Pondexter (Rutgers / Chicago, Ill.) layup. The run ended on a Alana Beard (Duke / Shreveport, La.) steal and jumper and with 4:03 to go in the quarter the USA was in front 55-41. By the end of the third quarter the game was well in hand, 62-43. The USA outscored Croatia 21-15 in the fourth quarter and registered its fourth win.

"We expected them to play like that," said Ohlde. "Because throughout the tournament Croatia's been getting some wins, hanging in tough and they were in front of their home crowd. So we expected them to come out and play us aggressively, which was what happened in the first half. We came out in the second half aggressively, getting into our spots and doing the things necessary to get a win, doing the things we're capable of doing."

In addition to their 14 points, Augustus collected a game high seven steals and Ohlde grabbed a game high eight rebounds.

The USA dominated in every aspect of the game. The squad outrebounded Croatia 37-16, was credited for 19 steals and shot 42.9 percent (33-77 FGs) from the field, while limiting Croatia to 36.5 percent (19-52 FGs).

Foster is being assisted by collegiate head coaches Kathy Delaney-Smith of Harvard University (Mass.) and Felisha Legette-Jack of Hofstra University (N.Y.).

In the other preliminary round Group A play, Brazil (4-1) defeated the Czech Republic (1-4) 87-59, while France (4-1) downed South Korea (0-5) 68-43. Closing out Group B undefeated was Latvia (5-0) with an 81-79 close call over China (2-3), Australia (4-1) trounced Tunisia (0-5) 70-32 and Russia (3-2) edged Argentina (1-4) 63-60.

Additional Quotes

JIM FOSTER, USA and Ohio State University head coach

Are you pleased with where the team is right now?

"We're getting good quality shots, we're not turning the ball over and I think that's a good sign."

KRISTEN MANN, UC Santa Barbara

On tonight's game:

"The first half we came out really lazy, we were really lackadaisical, we weren't really intense at all. We started off really strong but we got pretty sloppy towards the end of the first half. In the second half we picked up our intensity. We obviously made some adjustments in the locker room and we had more fire in us the second half, we played with a lot more intensity."

NICOLE OHLDE, Kansas State University

On playing Australia in the quarterfinals after playing the Aussies twice in Boston:

"We know that Australia is going to come out really aggressive and its do or die time. So we have to come out and do things we're capable of and we have to do that from the beginning of the game."

LINDSAY WHALEN, University of Minnesota

On tonight's game:

"I thought that we were a little lackadaisical, we got up on them early and there was a dead atmosphere in there for a little while. I think we fell into that trap. But at halftime we sorted some things out, we talked about our match-ups on defense because we were letting a lot of penetration into the middle. They had shooters open, but we clamped down on that in the second half. We finished off strong and got a lot of things accomplished. It was a good win to go into the medal round for us."

TANISHA WRIGHT, Penn State University

On playing Australia in the quarterfinals:

"I think the hardest thing will be to not take them for granted like we did against Brazil. We came out thinking that we already beat Brazil and we'll beat them again. The hardest thing will be to stay focused on playing a different team, they're a different team than the one we saw in Boston."