U.S. women to meet Australia in FIBA final

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Diana Taurasi scored 21 points, Sylvia Fowles added 15 and the Sparks’ Candace Parker added 12 as the 2008 USA Basketball women’s national team defeated Russia 93-58 in FIBA Diamond Ball tournament action on Monday night in Haining, China.

The U.S. advances to the Tuesday night final against world champion Australia, which last night defeated Mali, 112-43.

Here’s what U.S. coach Anne Donovan told USA Basketball: “I thought we were in a total rhythm tonight offensively, and it was predicated off our defense. We were aggressive defensively, we got after it, and therefore our transition to our offense really was aggressive as well. So, I was pleased. This really was a great game for us.”

The U.S. women jumped to a 9-2 lead in the opening minutes and were leading 17-10 after one quarter. The U.S. was leading 43-19 at half-time.

Here are Donovan’s thoughts on Australia, as relayed by USA Basketball:

‘I think Australia has been playing great basketball. When you look at Australia right now, you can tell they have been together for a while. And the nice thing about Australia, when Lauren [Jackson] comes off the floor, when Penny [Taylor] comes off the floor, the rest of that team is used to playing without them. So although Lauren and Penny obviously are great players, they don’t lose that much without them. So we expect it to be a great game, and I’m looking forward to that match-up.”

-- Greg Johnson