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Women's Basketball
Aussies Ready for U.S. War
Hosts Not Intimidated After Americans Control South Korea; United States 78, South Korea 65

By Angus Phillips
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 30, 2000; Page D11

SYDNEY, Sept. 29 –– The U.S. women's basketball team was too big, too quick, too talented and too deep for the opposition tonight, surprise, surprise. The Americans posted their sixth straight easy Olympic victory, 78-65, over South Korea to advance to Saturday's gold medal final.

The game was close for the first half as the scrappy Koreans shot 8 for 15 from the three-point line, but steals and fast breaks led by Sheryl Swoopes and rebounding by supersub Natalie Williams broke it open in the second half. The U.S. women's victories here have been by an average of 23 points. Begging the question, can anybody stay with them?

The host Australians think so, and will get a chance to prove it before a roaring, partisan crowd at the SuperDome after beating Brazil in their semifinal, 64-52. Have the locals got a strategy for handling the imposing array of professionals on the U.S. side?

"I guess the better question is, how do they think they're going to beat us?" said Michelle Timms, the cocky Aussie captain and reserve point guard. "They're deep, but we have a pretty deep bench, too. Our defense is better but they have a better running game. We play a very similar style. It will be a deep-in-the-trenches game."

The Aussies also have an answer to the margins of victory the Americans have posted. They've played six games, too, and won them by an average margin of 22 points, just one point less than the Americans.

"They're a good team," said U.S. Coach Nell Fortner. "They're at home in a great arena at the biggest event in the world. [Six-foot-five center Lauren] Jackson is a very nice player. We've got a lot of nice players. They earned where they are and we earned where we are, so let's throw the ball up."

An Aussie win would be an upset, for sure, but these things happen in the Olympics, where the pressure is uniquely intense and the incentive to play beyond one's normal capacity is palpable when a medal is on the line. The Koreans showed that as they pecked and hammered away at the taller, faster and more skilled Americans and strode proudly into the locker room at halftime trailing by just two points.

Korean guards Jung Ok Yang and Jung Eun Park were hitting three-pointers from outside the U.S. zone defense, so when the second half opened Fortner switched to a tight man-to-man and those opportunities vanished.

Meantime, the speedy Swoopes, who wound up with a game-high 19 points plus 5 steals and 5 assists, stepped up the defensive pressure and the powerful Williams moved inside to bang the backboards and work the lane offensively. The Koreans, with no starter taller than 6-1, had no answer to the inside combination of the 6-2 Williams, 6-5 Lisa Leslie and 6-3 Yolanda Griffith.

The Americans bumped the lead from two points to 12, allowing just one Korean three-pointer in the second half. The only negative note came late in the game when Swoopes broke free for a fast-break layup, then fell to the floor clutching her leg. She was helped off the court but Fortner said later it was a minor, recurring knee problem that won't affect her play in the final.

"She's fine," said the coach. "She has to be. We can't afford to lose her."

"The Koreans made us change our whole game plan," said Leslie, the towering center who will have to control Australia's Jackson in the gold medal game. Asked if the nip-and-tuck first half surprised her, she said, "No. We had to wear them down. The U.S. is not so much better than the rest of the world that we can go in and win games in the first half."

Leslie said she's looking forward to her matchup under the basket with Jackson, who at 19 has already been playing professionally in Australia for three years and is expected to be a first-round pick in the next WNBA draft.

"It's going to be Magic and Bird all over again."

That may be overstating it, but with 20,000 Aussies at the SuperDome rocking it up, it won't be dull.

"We're the defending gold medalists and we're coming into their house," said Williams, whose 10 points in a reserve role boosted her teammates today. "We knew that coming in, and that's what we prepared for. It's going to be a battle."