Lisa Leslie lost her hair extension at one point of Saturday’s gold-medal contest, but she never lost her poise as the United States brought home another gold medal in women’s basketball.
A boisterous crowd of 14,978 failed to inspire the Australians to an upset at the Sydney Superdome. The Americans were in complete control of the 76-54 triumph as men’s star Vince Carter watched draped in an American flag.
The Americans built an early 15-point lead and coasted to a defense of the gold medal they won in 1996 in Atlanta.
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“We had to do that,” Teresa Edwards said. “We were on their floor. We had to go at them and hope the game went our way.”
There never was any doubt.
“We took the crowd out of the game and they didn’t have anything to motivate them,” said Chicagoan Yolanda Griffith, who finished with 13 points and 12 rebounds.
Leslie and center Natalie Williams led the balanced U.S. attack in scoring with 15 points each. Sheryl Swoopes scored 14 as the Americans shot 50 percent (31 of 62).
Australia tried to counter the Americans with 19-year-old center Lauren Jackson, who scored 20 points and blocked two of Leslie’s shots. But the Americans’ depth wore down Australia. Sandy Brondello, who had been averaging 12.6 points, scored only two for the Aussies.
“I thought we could beat this team and I still do,” said the 6-foot-5-inch Jackson. “The Americans played an awesome game and we didn’t come out firing.”
Williams, daughter of former NBA player Nate Williams, was a major force inside for the Americans, hitting 5-of-7 shots and snaring nine rebounds.
“They have so many big players; it’s not just Natalie,” Brondello said. “I’m disappointed. I didn’t knock down the shots I usually do.” The Australians, who matched the perfect record of the United States in preliminary games leading up to the championship showdown, had pointed toward this title game with the Americans for months and seemed to issue a physical challenge early in Saturday’s contest.
“All we do is get on the basketball court and take care of business that way,” Griffith said. “If you make mistakes, you don’t worry about mistakes. You work the problems out. We don’t trash talk to anybody. But if you come at us in a bad way …
“There was a lot of trash talking [by the Australians] and a lot of pulling. After [the officials] call a foul, then [the Australians] should let us go. We were not about fighting. We don’t try to get into people’s heads.”
The Australians were called for 20 personal fouls trying to rattle the Americans.
As for the physical play, Leslie lost her hair extension with about 6 minutes 50 seconds left in the game. She flipped it nonchalantly into the photographers’ area under one of the baskets, barely breaking stride.
“That was pretty good,” said Smith of her teammate’s coy maneuver. “She’s hoping she can get a hair-store contract out of that. We got a kick out of that. We had a good laugh about it.”
The American squad coached by Nell Fortner celebrated for nearly 45 minutes on the court after the game before they were issued their gold medals.
“I’m ready to have some fun tonight,” Smith said. “We’re taking a charter flight home, so we’ll be partying on the plane.”
Earlier Saturday, Brazil took the bronze medal with an 84-73 overtime victory against South Korea.