USA BASKETBALL -- USA National Team Drops Good Luck Beijing Tournament Opener To Rival Australia 74-60

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE / April 19, 2008 For further information contact Caroline Williams at (719) 330-3310 or Craig Miller or Jenny Maag at USA Basketball (719)-590 4800. *This release is also available on USA Basketball's World Wide Web homepage http://www.usabasketball.com. USA National Team Drops Good Luck Beijing Tournament Opener To Rival Australia 74-60 BEIJING, China (April 19, 2008)-The 2007-08 USA Basketball Women's National Team (0-1) and Australia (1-0) battled for three quarters, but the USA's rivals from Down Under put together a 26-10 fourth quarter run that left the U.S. trailing 74-60 at the final buzzer. A pair of veterans were the only two to score in double digits for the U.S. as Lisa Leslie (Los Angeles Sparks) and Katie Smith (Detroit Shock) poured in 17 and 14 points, respectively on the opening night of the 2008 Good Luck Beijing Tournament in China. Up next for the USA is Cuba (1-0), which clipped New Zealand (0-1) 75-71 earlier in the day, on April 20. The game tips off live on NBA TV at 2:30 a.m. (EDT) and will be rebroadcast at 4:00 p.m. (EDT) ."Obviously the result was not what we wanted in terms of a win,"said USA head coach Anne Donovan."But I was pleased with several things I saw out there today. Number one, it's good to have Lisa Leslie back on the court for us again. She's done a tremendous job getting herself back in shape and having a baby after being away from us essentially since Athens. It's great to have her back on the floor again."We've had four practices with this new and very young team so overall I thought we did a nice job after four days of practice. It hurts us to lose this game against Australia, but we know we're going to continue to improve and get better as the tournament goes on." "It's disappointing to lose because obviously playing for the USA, we never want to lose,"said Leslie, who also grabbed a team-best eight rebounds and dished out three assists."But I thought it was a very good learning experience with us coming here with a very young team. I thought we did a lot of good things tonight with the execution of our offense and also on defense. We will continue to improve and play better throughout this tournament." In a game that featured seven knotted scores and 13 lead changes, the play was evenly matched through much of the contest. In fact, neither team held more than a six-point lead through the first 33 minutes of action. The Americans led 33-29 at halftime and held a 50-48 edge heading into the fourth quarter. At 9:19 Sylvia Fowles (Chicago Sky), who got into foul trouble early in the game and sat out most of the first three periods, took a pass inside from Leslie to give the USA its final lead of the game, 52-51. Australia regained the lead, this time for good, 17 seconds later on a Suzy Batkovic bucket that spurred a 13-3 Australian run. Batkovic bookended the run with a three at 6:28 that put the Opals in front 64-55. Leslie and Fowles contributed a basket each to pull the USA to within six points, 64-59 with five minutes on the clock, but that was as close as the red, white and blue would get to Australia. Fowles finished with nine points, four rebounds and a pair of blocked shots. Australia's points were well distributed as Rohanee Cox scored 16, Hollie Grima had 13, Erin Phillips finished with 12 and Batkovic tossed in 10. The USA struggled with its outside shooting, making just 2-of-19 from beyond the arc and closed the night making 36.5 percent (23-63 FGs) overall. Australia outrebounded the U.S. 39-34, had 13 steals and scored 11 points off the USA's 17 turnovers; while the USA was unable to capitalize on Australia's errors, receiving just two points on 13 Opal turnovers. Following the April 20 USA-Cuba contest, the U.S. will face South Korea on April 21 (2:30 a.m. EDT). Following a day off, the USA will meet New Zealand on April 23 (10:15 a.m. EDT) and closes preliminary play against host China on April 24 (8:00 a.m. EDT). On April 26 FIBA, the International Basketball Federation, will host the 2008 Olympic draw (5:30 a.m. EDT) at the Wukesong Arena between the bronze (3:15 a.m. EDT) and gold medal (8:00 a.m EDT) games. NBA TV will televise live the USA's games against Cuba and China, as well as its final game on April 26, and will re-air each of those games at 4:00 p.m. (ET) the afternoon of the games. Donovan is being assisted on the sidelines by collegiate head coaches Gail Goestenkors of the University of Texas and Temple University's Dawn Staley. USA assistant coach Mike Thibault (Connecticut Sun) aided in the team's pre-Beijing training camp but was unable to join the team in China due to his WNBA coaching duties. 2008 Good Luck Beijing Tournament Schedule , Results Preliminary Round Standings Team W-L Australia 1-0 Cuba 1-0 China 1-0 New Zealand 0-1 USA 0-1 South Korea 0-1 _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Preliminary Round Robin Play Saturday, April 19 Cuba 75, New Zealand 71 Australia 74, USA 60 China 80, South Korea 67 Sunday, April 20 2:30 p.m. Cuba - USA NBA TV: 2:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. ET 4:45 p.m. Korea - New Zealand 8:00 p.m. Australia - China Monday, April 21 2:30 p.m. USA - Korea 4:45 p.m. Australia - Cuba 8:00 p.m. China - New Zealand Wednesday, April 23 4:45 p.m. Korea - Australia 8:00 p.m. Cuba - China 10:15 p.m. New Zealand - USA Thursday, April 24 4:45 p.m. Korea - Cuba 8:00 p.m. China - USA NBA TV: 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. ET 10:15 p.m. Australia - New Zealand Finals (Following round robin play, teams will be seeded for the final games based on their preliminary round records.) Saturday, April 26 1:00 p.m. #5th/6th Place Game (5 vs. 6) 3:15 p.m. #Bronze Medal Game (3 vs. 4) 5:30 p.m. 2008 Olympic Basketball Draw 8:00 p.m. #Gold Medal Game (1 vs. 2) NBA TV: 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. ET # NBA TV will broadcast the USA's final game and rebroadcast it on April 26 at 4:00 p.m. ET NOTES: - Please contact Caroline Williams in the USA Basketball Communications Department at 719-330-3310 if would like to schedule a telephone interview with a member of the USA team. - All times listed are local. Beijing is +12 hours from EDT. OFFICIAL BASKETBALL BOX SCORE -- G A M E T O T A L S Australia vs USA National Team 04/19/08 4:45 p.m. at Wukesong Arena / Beijing, China -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VISITORS: Australia (1-0) TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS No. N A M E FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 04 PHILLIPS, Erin * 4-8 2-4 2-3 0 8 8 2 12 1 3 0 2 26 05 BEVILAQUA, Tully * 2-8 1-2 0-0 0 3 3 4 5 2 0 0 3 20 08 BATKOVIC, Suzy * 3-12 1-2 3-4 1 4 5 3 10 0 2 1 1 22 12 COX, Rohanee * 6-14 0-2 4-5 3 2 5 1 16 1 3 0 3 24 13 RANDALL, Emma * 1-3 0-0 4-4 1 1 2 2 6 0 0 0 0 18 06 POTO, Alicia 2-3 1-2 0-0 0 3 3 0 5 1 0 0 1 19 07 CAMINO, Renae 0-3 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 8 09 GRIMA, Hollie 6-9 0-1 1-3 3 5 8 3 13 0 3 1 1 27 10 McINERNY, Emily 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 2 8 14 PORTER, Natalie 0-2 0-1 2-2 0 2 2 1 2 1 0 0 0 16 15 BROGAN, Michelle 1-4 0-0 3-4 2 1 3 2 5 0 1 0 0 12 TEAM ........................................ 0 0 0 TOTALS 25-66 5-14 19-25 10 29 39 21 74 7 13 3 13 200 TOT-FG 1stH: 0-0 00.0% 2ndH: 25-66 37.9% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 37.9% Deadbl 3pt-FG 1stH: 0-0 00.0% 2ndH: 5-14 35.7% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 35.7% Rebs FThrow 1stH: 0-0 00.0% 2ndH: 19-25 76.0% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 76.0% 3 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOME TEAM: USA National Team (0-1) TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS No. N A M E FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN 05 HARDING, Lindsay * 0-5 0-3 0-0 0 2 2 0 0 1 3 0 1 20 07 CASH, Swin * 3-10 0-1 1-1 0 4 4 2 7 0 1 0 0 26 09 LESLIE, Lisa * 7-14 0-1 3-6 2 6 8 2 17 3 1 0 0 31 12 FOWLES, Sylvia * 3-6 0-0 3-6 2 2 4 3 9 1 2 2 0 16 14 SMITH, Katie * 5-9 2-5 2-2 0 5 5 3 14 2 1 0 0 34 04 WIGGINS, Candice 1-9 0-8 0-0 0 1 1 2 2 0 3 1 3 26 08 HARPER, Laura 2-4 0-0 0-0 1 5 6 3 4 0 2 0 0 15 11 McWILLIAMS-FRANKLIN 1-4 0-1 1-2 0 1 1 4 3 0 1 0 0 14 13 LANGHORNE, Crystal 1-1 0-0 2-2 1 0 1 1 4 1 3 0 1 13 15 PARIS, Courtney 0-1 0-0 0-0 1 1 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 5 TEAM ........................................ 0 0 0 TOTALS 23-63 2-19 12-19 7 27 34 22 60 8 17 3 5 200 TOT-FG 1stH: 0-0 00.0% 2ndH: 23-63 36.5% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 36.5% Deadbl 3pt-FG 1stH: 0-0 00.0% 2ndH: 2-19 10.5% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 10.5% Rebs FThrow 1stH: 0-0 00.0% 2ndH: 12-19 63.2% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 63.2% 4 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OFFICIALS: E. Koromilas (GRE), M. Yang (CHN), O. Latisevs (LAT) TECHNICAL FOULS: Australia - none USA National Team - none ATTENDANCE: 1,715 SCORE BY PERIODS: 1st 2nd 3rd 4th OT1 OT2 TOTAL Australia 17 12 19 26 74 USA National Team 16 17 17 10 60