The international stage is set in women’s basketball: host Australia against the defending gold-medal champion United States.
“Australia has created this rivalry with us,” Lisa Leslie said after leading the Americans to a 78-65 victory over South Korea in a Friday night semifinal at the Sydney Superdome. Leslie scored 15 points and had 12 rebounds.
The Aussies knocked off Brazil 64-52 in the other semifinal to set up the long-awaited gold-medal game Saturday against the Americans. Both teams have 7-0 records.
“We love the intensity about it. We love the fact that the Australians feel they’re better than the Americans,” Leslie said. “It’s a cool rivalry. It’s not about war or anything like that. It’s all fun and games and in sport.”
Anti-American sentiment has been discernible in men’s and women’s basketball during these Games.
“The crowd boos us, they cheer for the other team. We’re the team you love to hate,” Leslie said. “But, you know, we have a saying at home: `Don’t player-hate, celebrate.’
“So we’re celebrating the fact that we’re the USA team. We celebrate the fact that we work hard, don’t play dirty and get the job done. If they want to fight, then we’ll fight. If they want to play clean, we’ll play clean. We can match the intensity of any team, and we’ll play them the same way they play us.
“Why are we the bad guys? I don’t know. We haven’t done anything to anybody. Can’t we all just get along?”
U.S. star Sheryl Swoopes, who led all scorers with 19 points on 9-of-12 shooting, aggravated a strained left knee during the second half but is expected to play Saturday.
“Sheryl is going to be ready,” Leslie said. “I don’t care if she’s limping, she has to be ready. We need her.”
The Americans appeared to be looking past the South Koreans in the first half, trailing 19-13 in the early going and leading by only 42-40 at the half. The U.S. shot 71 percent from the field in the first half, but the Koreans made eight three-pointers.
Natalie Williams came up big for the Americans in the second half, finishing with 10 points and 11 rebounds and controlling the game under the basket.
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“Korea put on a clinic out there–they made us change our whole game plan for the second half in order to beat them,” Leslie said. “At halftime we knew we had to stop double-teaming. Australia and ourselves, we play more of an American-style basketball. You cannot `help’ on those [Korean] girls. They just have too many good shooters, and we had to stop giving up so many three-point shots.
“We really respected Korea. They’re a tough team, and the best thing about playing against them is that they get us to play at such a high level. Hopefully, it will carry over to Saturday”
South Korea got a team-high 14 points from Jung-Eun Park, who rattled in three three-pointers. Jung-Ok Yang added nine points. The game was won on rebounding, where the U.S. had a 41-14 edge.
“I didn’t really expect to beat the USA, so I watched the Brazil-Australia game to prepare for our next [bronze medal] match,” Yang said.
U.S. coach Nell Fortner was hit with a technical foul in the final minute after disputing a call at midcourt. It was Fortner’s 100th victory as national team coach. No other coach in USA Basketball history has won more games.