The previously unbeaten Turkey gave the U.S. women’s basketball team a stiff game for the first quarter, lost the second, almost salvaged the third, and in the fourth quarter learned how powerful the squad of WNBA stars could be. The final score was 89–58.
Turkey took a 10–6 lead early in the first, and kept the score within two points until Angel McCoughtry stole the ball in the final seconds and made layup to give the U.S. a 19–16 lead at the horn. This was the first quarter the U.S. had played against a real opponent and it took them the ten minutes to adjust.
The U.S. women picked up the level of their play in the second quarter, tightening up the defense and closing the lane, forcing the Turkish women to shoot from the outside. After Turkish center Nevriye Yilmaz got into foul trouble, the U.S. started driving to the hoop.
USA hit nine of ten foul shots, only two of seven three-pointers, and 13 of 29 two-point field goals—not great (except the fouls shots) but enough to give the team a 41–26 lead at the half. Turkey might have been undefeated, but the U.S. was, too.
Turkey started the third quarter with a 9-2 run, but Yilmaz had to come out with foul trouble again, and again the U.S. took advantage. The U.S. women weren’t shooting well; they made up for it by shooting a lot.
Turkey pulled to within five, 50–45 near the end of the third, before the U.S. pushed the score back to 63–47 with tough defense and its running game. USA not only got some fast breaks, they drew fouls which Turkey, in the penalty, could not afford to give.
The fourth quarter was all USA as Turkey was tired from being outplayed for 30 minutes. The final was 89–58. The U.S. women McCaughty scored 18, Tina Charles 16, and Lindsay Whalen, 14. Each of this trio had seven rebounds. The team hit 20 of 23 foul shots and shot 48 percent from the floor—only three for 13 from behind the arc, but that didn’t hurt them against Turkey.
After the game, Tina Charles talked with NBC Sports about the big defensive surge which stated in the second quarter and stayed on through the rest of the game. “Well, after the last time we scrimmaged against Turkey we wanted to make a statement,” she explained.
“We weren’t guarding the screens right, we weren’t rotating properly, we weren’t helping, so we just wanted to show that we could do it.”
The U.S. women have done it three times so far, and are tied in their group with China with three wins and six points each. The Czech women are next on the agenda, with China after that. Despite the turnovers, the missed shots, and the sometimes awkward teamwork, it seems likely the U.S. will finish group play undefeated.
