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Sending them home

U.S., Australia to meet in gold medal game

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Posted: Saturday September 18, 1999 09:30 AM

Lisa Leslie and the U.S. team want to send an early message to the Australian team before the 2000 Olympics. AP

STANFORD, Calif. (AP) -- Don't think that just because the Sydney Olympics are a year away that Saturday's women's basketball game between Australia and the United States is a meaningless exercise.

"We want to send them back home with a bad feeling," said American center and forward Natalie Williams after the U.S. National Team disposed of Poland, 86-67. The win set up a third Australia-U.S. matchup in Saturday's gold medal game in the USA Basketball International Invitational at Stanford University.

Williams and Lisa Leslie each had 18 points Thursday as the Americans completed pool play with a 6-0 record. Australia, meanwhile, bounced Brazil 88-58 to run its record to 3-3. Two of the losses were at the hands of the United States.

Some of the luster has been rubbed off of Saturday's USA Basketball International Invitational game, however, because it appears likely that Australian superstar Lauren Jackson won't play.

The 6-5 Jackson, who at 17 was MVP of the tough Australian women's pro league, has not suited up in the past two games due to a groin injury.

Thursday, though, Trish Fallon of the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx picked up the slack for Australia, scoring 17 points and grabbing seven rebounds.

Three other Australians were in double figures, including Michele Timms (13), Jenny Whittle (13) and Jo Hill (11).

In Saturday's bronze medal game, Poland (2-4) will look to avenge an earlier defeat at the hands of Brazil (1-5).

The young Brazilians ran out of gas Thursday against the Australians, though 20-year-old Adriana Moises Pinto scored 12 points. Moises Pinto is one of six Brazilian team members 20 or younger, as five veterans are out because they are injured, resting or playing overseas.

Margo Dydek, the 7-2 center for the Utah Starzz during the summer, had 24 points and nine rebounds to lead the Poles against the Americans. The small Brazilians have no one to counter the tallest woman in the game - unless she gets into foul trouble, as she has several times during the Invitational.

 

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