2020 Women's Olympic Tournament

[Kings]

Group A

26/07/2021 Korea 69 Spain 73
26/07/2021 Serbia 72 Canada 68
29/07/2021 Canada 74 Korea 53
29/07/2021 Spain 85 Serbia 70
01/08/2021 Canada 66 Spain 76
01/08/2021 Korea 61 Serbia 65


Group B

27/07/2021 Japan 74 France 70
27/07/2021 Nigeria 72 USA 81
30/07/2021 USA 86 Japan 69
30/07/2021 France 87 Nigeria 62
02/08/2021 Nigeria 83 Japan 102
02/08/2021 France 82 USA 93


Group C

27/07/2021 Australia 70 Belgium 85
27/07/2021 Puerto Rico 55 China 97
30/07/2021 Belgium 87 Puerto Rico 52
30/07/2021 China 76 Australia 74
02/08/2021 China 74 Belgium 62
02/08/2021 Australia 96 Puerto Rico 69


1/4 Finals

04/08/2021 China 70 Serbia 77
04/08/2021 Australia 55 USA 79
04/08/2021 Japan 86 Belgium 85
04/08/2021 Spain 64 France 67


1/2 Finals

06/08/2021 USA 79 Serbia 59
06/08/2021 Japan 87 France 71


3rd Place

07/08/2021 Serbia 76 France 91


Final

08/08/2021 USA 90 Japan 75

[reptilia]

I’ve got

Spain - just edges Canada
Canada
Serbia
Korea

USA
France
Japan - just edges nigeria
Nigeria

Australia - just edges Belgium
Belgium
China
Puerto Rico

[JGX]

Strange Nigerian team news:

For the women’s national team, coach Otis Hughley listed three new players — Erica Ogwumike, Oderah Chidom and Elizabeth Williams — in his squad.

Ogwumike’s sisters Nneka, a World Cup winner with the US in 2014 and 2018, and Chiney, also made the squad.

The other players who made the squad are Adaora Elonu, Aisha Balarabe, Amy Amukamara, Atonye Nyingifa, Ezinne Kalu, Pallas Kunayi-Akpanah, Ifunaya Ibekwe, Amy Okonkwo and Victoria Macauley.

Also, exciting power forward Evelyn Akhator missed out from D’Tigress squad for the Olympics, following COVID-19 travel restrictions, which prevented her from joining the other players in camp in the United States.

https://punchng.com/olympics-diogu-excluded-ogwumike-sisters-make-dtigress-squad/

I don't see how Nneka Ogwumike, who was controversially left off the US team, could be allowed to play for Nigeria after representing the US in two World Cups. Elizabeth Williams played for the US in the 2019 AmeriCup, which was part of Olympic qualifying. Akhator is a big loss for them.

More strange Nigerian team news:

https://www.thecable.ng/olympic-basketball-kits-not-seized-by-customs-says-nbbf

[JGX]

US loses their first warmup game, 93-85 to a strong WNBA all-star team in the WNBA all-star game.

Word is that FIBA denied Nneka Ogwumike and Elizabeth Williams for Nigeria, and is allowing Chiney Ogwumike only as a naturalized player:

https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/31818237/nneka-ogwumike-petition-play-nigeria-denied-fiba

I wonder if Nigeria also tried to recruit Ogunbowale, who was named all-star game MVP after scoring 26 points.

[JGX]

Cambage in trouble?

The Australian Opals are discussing Liz Cambage's future with the team for the Tokyo Olympics due to an incident that occurred during a closed-door scrimmage, sources told ESPN.

Cambage was involved in a physical altercation during a closed warm-up game against Nigeria, sources said, as well as a charged verbal exchange

https://www.espn.com.au/olympics/story/_/id/31824563/australia-opals-discussing-liz-cambage-future-following-incident-scrimmage-nigeria

[JGX]

Australia rallied from 16 down early in the second half to upset the US 70-67. Announcers said it was the first time they'd beaten the US since 2010, and even though it's an exhibition it's a big win for them after the Cambage drama. The US shot just 2-18 from three and the Opals did a great job of containing them in the paint.

https://www.usab.com/news-events/live-stats/2021/wnt/7-16-21-box-score-usa-wnt-vs-aus.aspx

Japan beat Belgium 84-76 yesterday.

[JGX]

Nigeria named their final roster without Williams (who played 29 minutes against the US) or the older Ogwunmikes.

https://guardian.ng/sport/nneka-ogwumike-elizabeth-williams-finally-out-as-dtigress-dtigers-announce-tokyo-2020-rosters/

[JGX]

US scored 23 points in a row late in the first half to open up a big lead against an energetic Nigerian team that could not make any shots. Nigeria rallied within single digits late but never threatened to win. Way to many turnovers by the US, who were saved by their dominant post scorers. Japan brought the energy in their win over a taller French team, so could they give the US a challenge? We have always dominated the shorter Japan/Korea teams in the modern era.

Eurobasket winners Serbia also had a ton of turnovers against Canada, but the Canadians had some late unforced turnovers of their own and came up short. Canada has had a good team for a while but just cannot get over the hump against top teams in big games. Better than the men, who cannot get it done against average teams in big games.

Didn't see the Belgium-Australia game but obviously a great win for Belgium.

[Shawshank]

Watching Serbia vs Spain

That Spain have black womens playing for their country im used to that shit.

But when i saw black women playing for Serbian women NT im sad to see that.

[Darrell Armstrong]

Watching Serbia vs Spain

That Spain have black womens playing for their country im used to that shit.

But when i saw black women playing for Serbian women NT im sad to see that.

Hey, you cannot compare both cases. Ndour moved from Senegal to Spain when she was 14. Has played all her life for Spain NT, grew up as a player in Spain's league, speaks the language. In spite of her birthplace, she's as Spanish as anyone else. Even if she wasn't an athlete she would have acquired the nationality by now.

On the other hand Yvonne Anderson is a gun-for-hire, as far as I know has no relation to Serbia. Didn't even play professionally there. This is the same case as Tobey or Randolph playing for Slovenia. Even though Tobey's skin is not black...

[Katastroika]

It's women's "basketball" after all. Respect for everyone who has nerves to follow this. Generally, to stay on topic, it seems like a desperation move of Serbia like with this red headed US girl (Paige?) who was naturalized few years ago. Women's basketball starts where logic ends. I don't know for Spain and Lithuania but it's on the edge of recognition and popularity here. Of course everyone is expert and follows from 1/4 of big tournaments but I can name more.male waterpolo athletes than female basketball ones (Serbia and worldwide).

[judasmartel]

You know, there was a time when I hated watching the NBA so much that I actually started watching women's basketball, following the Japanese NT and our very own Philippines NT in the process. The Heatles and KD Warriors superteams, the selfish 1v1 plays, players fishing for fouls, padding their stats, and looking for that ESPN SportsCenter highlight was too much for me, women's basketball gave me a breath of fresh air. They may not be as skilled and strong as the men, but at least I saw actual team play like those of the Spurs, it wasn't about star players scoring 30 every night out and consistently getting themselves in ESPN SC highlights.

I know it doesn't matter to you folks here (after all, the Philippine NT has no quality, am I right?), but I was very happy to see our women's team win the Southeast Asian Games basketball gold medal for the first time ever. In the past, our girls always lose to Malaysia and Indonesia in women's basketball. Now, they are looking to keep their newfound dominance in SEA and to take a crack at the Asian level with some pretty tough competition up there. They still get destroyed by world-level teams in Australia, NZ, Japan, Korea, and Chinese Taipei, but it's part of the process, it's always painful at first.

[JGX]

On the other hand Yvonne Anderson is a gun-for-hire, as far as I know has no relation to Serbia. Didn't even play professionally there.

Yeah, Maljkovic coached Anderson at Galatasaray a few years ago and recruited her to play for Serbia. I hadn't realized until now that she was the daughter of (longtime NCAA coach) Mike Anderson. Danielle Page played for Serbia at the last Olympics, so this is nothing new.

The quality of players "available" to be naturalized is higher on the women's side than the men, so no surprise that even the top teams are doing it.

[JGX]

Interesting set of quarterfinals.

China-Serbia...China has been the surprise team of the tournament so far

USA-Australia...US not nearly as dominant as in Rio. Australia has not looked good and has lost many big games to the US, but I still feel like they are the only team that really believes that they can beat the Americans.

Japan-Belgium...Japan looking like a dangerous team, but Meesseman is the Doncic of the women's tournament.

Spain-France...France played about as well as they can play offensively in their loss to the US.

[judasmartel]

Japan became the first Asian team since China in 1992 to make it to the gold medal match in women's Olympic basketball after defeating France, 87-71. Himawari Akaho led the team in scoring with 17 points while Rui Machida led the team in BPM with +32 and 18 assists. They will be facing Team USA in the finals.