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July 22, 2007
SANTA CRUZ DE LA PALMA, Canary Islands –
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Virginia’s Monica Wright (Woodbridge, Va.) helped the USA Basketball U19 World Championship Team to three exhibition wins on the Canary Islands prior to next week’s World Championships in Slovakia.
The rising sophomore led the USA with 14 points against Australia and 11 points against host Spain.
July 19
USA 64, Australia 62
Led by 14 points from Monica Wright and 10 points from Maya Moore (Lawrenceville, Ga.), the USA Women’s U19 World Championship Team withstood a resilient Australian squad to secure a late, 64-62 win in the first of three exhibition contests.
“There was a lot of good play, but basically we made a ton of mistakes,” said USA U19 and DePaul head coach Doug Bruno. “I think that’s to be expected with how little time we’ve had to practice, but we have to clean up our game, and we won’t make any excuses.
“We had some opportunities where we were in position to put the game away, and we didn’t. We don’t know each other well enough yet. The coaches don’t know the players yet, and it’s just been too fast. But that’s why we are here in the Canary Islands-to come together as a team.”
July 20
USA 90, Brazil 75
A 26-point lead built during the first three quarters proved enough for the USA Women’s U19 World Championship Team to withstand a fourth-quarter onslaught from Brazil (0-2) to secure a 90-75 win Friday evening in exhibition play.
“The good news was that I thought that we got off to a good start, and the intensity level was much better today,” said Bruno. “But we didn’t finish the game strong, and they really beat us badly in the fourth quarter. We need to understand how to contain a team for an entire game.
“Tomorrow we play Spain, who is also undefeated, and this is their home court, their home country. We are not going to be able to have the lapses we had today.”
Wright did not play in this game.
July 21
USA 79, Spain 71
Down two points at halftime, the USA Women’s U19 World Championship Team opened the third quarter with an impressive 18-2 run that carried the Americans past host Spain, 79-71, in Saturday’s final exhibition contest in Santa Cruz de La Palma, Canary Islands.
The USA (3-0) finished atop the standings in the pre-U19 World Championship Tournament, hosted by the La Palma Basketball Federation, followed by Spain (2-1), Australia (1-2) and Brazil (0-3).
“We didn’t come out with any intensity, and we played a soft first two quarters,” Bruno said. “The coaches made a decision at halftime to take advantage of our athleticism and use a full-court pressure defense. We wanted to slow Spain down and jumpstart some momentum and intensity on our side of the ball. It worked, and then we started to execute a little bit better in our half-court offense.
“This pre-competition tournament has been very useful for us because we have such a young group. They needed to experience all the adversity we’ve dealt with, the tough travel and arriving just a few hours before our first game, before we travel to play in the world championship. Every single player on the team has done some good things, and now it is about finding consistency.”
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