Ruthy Hebard got playing time and a gold medal on Sunday night in the FIBA Americas U18 Women’s Basketball Championship in Valdivia, Chile.
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The top performance for the U.S. was from Lauren Cox, who completed a 10 point, 13 rebound double-double.
The top performer for the Canadians was Alyssa Jerome, who accumulated a 16 point, 12 rebound double-double.
The victor of three Gatorade Alaska Girls Player of the Year honors and two-time victor of the Association of Alaska Basketball Coaches Class 4A Player of the Year didn’t play Friday in a 110-52 win over Venezuela in the pool-play finale.
With the win, the US advanced to the gold medal game, where it will take on the victor of tonight’s 8:15 p.m. (EDT) game between Canada (3-0) and Brazil (2-1).
While the USA defense held Puerto Rico to just 36 points, its offense was in high gear, tallying 53 of its points off of fast break opportunities.
One week after Pitt volleyball head coach Dan Fisher led the United States to bronze medals at the Pan Am Cup, women’s basketball head coach Suzie McConnell-Serio upped the ante by guiding Team USA to gold. “We have really been clicking on all cylinders, and we hope that continues going into tomorrow night”. Puerto Rico scored the next three points, but the United States of America closed with by outscoring Puerto Rico 9-3 to lead 23-14 after the first 10 minutes. Cooks averaged 11.7 points, 8.0 rebounds and 2.7 assists in the three wins and shot 59.3 percent (16-of-27) from the field.
“We got off to a slow start”, McConnell-Serio said in a press release after the game.
Brazil gave the Americans all they could handle early on, but Team USA still led 42-30 at halftime.
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Puerto Rico never again threatened the USA’s lead as the U.S. went on to outscore Puerto Rico 27-10 in the third quarter and 29-9 in the fourth. Everything went U.S. way on the second quarter as the North Americans held the Boricuas to just three points. Ramirez had 18 points (5 of 11 from the arc) and six assists in the USA’s 110-52 victory. “We moved the ball and got open shots”.
