Friday, August 19, 2011

Delle Donne, U.S. reach World University Games final

UPDATE: The World University Games gold medal women's basketball will be streamed live here. Registration is free. 

In what was by far its closest game of the tournament, Delaware star Elena Delle Donne had a tournament-high 22 points (on 24 shots) and 11 rebounds to lead the United States past Australia 79-67 in the World University Games semifinals Friday in Shenzhen, China. The U.S. will face fellow unbeaten Chinese Taipei, which survived Sweden 71-70 in overtime in the other semifinal,  in the gold medal game. Chinese Taipei's Yingli Huang made the second of two free throws with two seconds left to break a 70-70 tie.

The gold medal game is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Sunday (Eastern time).

The U.S.-Australia game featured some unusual shot distribution from the winners, particularly considering how many weapons Team USA can deploy. Delle Donne made 10 of 24 field goal attempts. Notre Dame's Skylar Diggins, who added 17 points, was 7 of 20 from the field. No other Team USA player took more than than 7 shots; Delle Donne and Diggins combined for 44 of their team's 78 shot attempts. But hey, it worked.

The U.S. (5-0) was coming off a 66-point victory over Finland in the quarterfinals. It's previous "closest'' game was a 46-point decision over Slovakia.

Also see: Delle Donne's video diary

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