As it pursues its eighth consecutive gold medal, the U.S. women’s Olympic basketball team wanted to make its presence known right from game one. On Monday, the USA Basketball senior national team defeated Japan 102–76. Japan had put up a fierce fight in the gold medal game at the 2020/21 Olympics, but despite some impressive play early in the first half, this time the U.S. dominated.
A’ja Wilson was the top scorer with 24 points, followed closely by the New York Liberty’s Breanna Stewart with 22. Fellow Liberty player and Olympic rookie Sabrina Ionescu had an impressive debut with 11 points. Kelsey Plum and Brittney Griner also scored 11 points each.
“A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart both have such versatility,” said Callan Stores, associate head coach of women’s basketball at Manhattan College. “A’ja has really worked on her mid-range game. She’s not just around the basket anymore. She’s expanded her three-point shooting. Same for Breanna. They can stretch the floor and shoot the three. They can play inside, they can turn around and face up. They can score from all three levels, anywhere on the court.
“It’s a hard matchup for any team,” she added. “They can play different positions and handle the ball. I love when Breanna Stewart brings the ball up full court in transition. I’ve seen A’ja do that as well. They’re chameleons. They can do it all and wherever you need. It’s kind of hard to stop them. Obviously, they rebound the ball extremely well. They have good IQ. They pass the ball. They’re just tough. You can tell they love basketball and they want to win.”
Making it that much more important to leave no doubts right from the jump was the fact that other highly ranked teams were upset. Spain defeated China, France defeated Canada and Nigeria spoiled the Olympic comeback of Lauren Jackson by downing Australia 75–62 for Nigeria’s first Olympic win in 20 years. The head coach for Nigeria is Rena Wakama, who was previously an assistant coach at Manhattan College and Stony Brook University. In a non-upset, Germany beat Belgium with two Liberty players contributing in a big way. Nyara Sabally and Leonie Fiebich each had 16 points.
The U.S. is in action again today, taking on Belgium at 3:00 p.m. EDT. Sunday will be a clash of four Liberty players as the U.S. faces Germany (11:15 a.m. EDT).