Yahoo Sports women’s basketball analyst Isis ‘Ice’ Young reacted to Team USA’s 88-74 win over Nigeria on Wednesday to advance to the Olympic Final Four.
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The US women’s basketball team has advanced to the semifinals.
We are so proud of them.
Oh, it was a close game.
To be honest, it was a match many of us were looking forward to.
There are huge expectations for Nigerian women’s basketball and the success they have had so far.
The first African basketball team to advance to the quarterfinals, men’s or women’s.
The US plays an aggressive style of basketball, but the US came out strong and dominated the game on defense. I was particularly impressed with the way Jackie Young pressured and controlled the defense and came out aggressive early in the scoring.
She started today by beating Diana Taurasi, but the U.S. opened a 12-point lead in the first quarter, the bench came in to add strength in the second quarter, and was out in transition.
You just saw the superiority of Team USA.
Another challenge for the Nigerian team is that their tallest player is 62 cm tall.
So the U.S. team struggled to deal with the limitations of length, physicality, and honesty on the court when playing against a lot of tall, athletic players. The U.S. ended the first half with a 21-6 lead.
Here are some numbers from this game: Asia Wilson had another double-double.
She lost 20 points.
Brianna Stewart also scored 13 points.
The two still get along well and have an overwhelming advantage on the board.
And Jackie Young, I mentioned she was a starter, but she also took full advantage of that starting advantage, scoring in double figures in her starts.
She also scored 15 points.
The USA Team A bench outscored the Nigeria bench 33 to 9.
A common theme in the Olympics is that Team USA sits on the bench and looks good. The semifinals are on Friday and Team USA faces Australia. Australia came out of the quarterfinals with a good win over Serbia and Team USA is coming off a 59-game winning streak at the Olympics against Nigeria on Friday.
