Hailey Van Lith delivered a message after the defending champion U.S. posted its third straight win with an overtime victory against Canada in women's 3x3 basketball pool play at the Paris Olympics after opening the tournament with three straight losses.
“We have a lot of tweets bookmarked on how we shouldn't come back to the States,” she said. “So we haven't forgotten.”
Rhyne Howard's 2-point shot in overtime lifted the U.S. to an 18-17 win over Canada after the Americans beat France 14-13 earlier Friday.
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Van Lith made a 2-point shot with 22 seconds left to tie it at 16 and force overtime, where the first team to score two points wins.
Canada scored first in OT on a short shot by Katherine Plouffe. Howard, who was 0 for 5 from long range in regulation, then drained the winning basket.
“After that third loss we had a heart to heart as a team and we were like we didn't come this far to lose,” Dearica Hamby said. “We weren't the favorites so to say but we're still USA basketball and gold is the standard.”
Hamby made a layup with four seconds remaining in the victory over France.
The U.S. was up by three after a basket by Howard with just more than a minute to go. France got a layup from Myriam Djekoundade before Marie Eve Paget’s 2-pointer tied it with 20 seconds remaining.
Van Lith then missed a shot for the U.S., but the team got the ball back to set up the game-winner.
Laetitia Guapo had a chance to give France the win at the buzzer, but her 2-pointer was short.
Hamby, Cierra Burdick and Van Lith had four points each. Burdick also grabbed seven rebounds.
France, which got five points from Guapo, fell to 1-4 with the loss.
WHEN DOES TEAM USA PLAY AGAIN?
Team USA plays next on Saturday at 12:05 p.m. CT against China.
The game will be carried online and on CNBC.
HAILEY VAN LITH
Azerbaijan 21, China 19, OT
Tiffany Hayes had 11 points and Alexandra Mollenhauer's 2-pointer in overtime led Azerbaijan over China.
China led by four with 35 seconds left in regulation. Mollenhauer made a 2-pointer with 25 seconds to go before Hayes hit one with 2 seconds left to send it to overtime.
Mollenhauer had nine points. Her big shot in overtime was her third 2-pointer of the game.
Mingling Chen had eight points for China, which fell to 2-4 with its second loss of the day.
Azerbaijan is also 2-4 in pool play.
Germany 18, China 15
Marie Reichert had seven points as Germany topped China for its fourth win in pool play.
Chen made a basket for China with about three minutes left, tying it at 13. Germany then put together a 5-0 run that included three points from Reichert.
Chen had six points and five assists for China.
Australia 21, Azerbaijan 12
Marena Whittle had eight points and Alex Wilson added seven for Australia.
Australia raced out to a 7-1 lead thanks to two early 2-pointers from Whittle. A 4-2 run by Azerbaijan cut the lead to 12-8 with about four minutes to go.
But Australia scored the next three points to pad the lead, and a free throw by Wilson ended it with two minutes remaining.
Azerbaijan got six points and five rebounds from Hayes.
Spain 21, Australia 17
Sandra Ygueravide and Vega Gimeno had nine points each as Spain downed Australia.
Australia led by four early before Spain scored the next seven points, including two 2-pointers from Gimeno, to take an 8-5 lead with 6½ minutes left.
Australia used a 5-0 run to tie it at 16 with three minutes remaining. Spain outscored Australia 5-1 after that, capped by a free throw from Gimeno, to end it with 1:50 remaining.
Spain improves to 3-2 in pool play with the win. Australia is 4-2 after a win and a loss on Friday.
