U.S. stars Taurasi, Bird and Tamika Catchings matched an Olympic basketball record with their fourth gold medals each, tying ex-US standouts Lisa Leslie and Teresa Edwards for most golds by a player, man or woman. They have won 49 consecutive games in the Olympics with only one of those decided by single digits.
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With that kind of sustained success, no one wants to say this is the best women’s basketball team ever assembled.
In Rio, the Americans won all eight games by an average of more than 37 points.
But if this isn’t the best ever, it’s close. Feeling no pressure, Spain notched its first lead of the game shortly after thanks to Laia Palau’s three-pointer, assisted by Alba Torrens.
But Tarausi, on the floor with four other of Auriemma’s former players at CT, hit back-to-back three-pointers in the second quarter to give the USA its first double-digit lead with a 16-3 run that increased the US lead to 43-27.
Maya Moore, also a standout for the US had 14 points, five rebounds and six assists.
Sue Bird – fighting the injury bug – was the first to score for US to open up the second quarter, but Spain still hung around much in part to Torrens and a three-pointer from Astou Ndour to make the score 27-24. Taurasi made two 3-pointers in the spurt and Moore and Breanna Stewart each added four points. You can have All-Star teams, but not everybody plays at an All-Star level.
The U.S. ran away with it from there, and the only question was whether Auriemma would survive unscathed after Griner picked the 62-year-old coach off his feet with a bear hug after the final horn sounded. They trailed for just over 11 minutes in the entire Olympics and the biggest deficit was just four points – 6-2 to France.
The US men will seek to win their third consecutive title in Sunday’s final against Serbia. After a back-and-forth first quarter in which the Americans appeared sluggish and shot poorly, they quickly took control of the game with.
This game marked the end of Catchings’ Olympic career.
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“It’s one thing to do the unexpected, it’s another to do what you are expected to do year-after-year, game-after-game, quarter-after-quarter”, said Maya Moore.
