By Jeff Metcalfe
Like before the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, the U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team lost Saturday night to Team WNBA in a more competitive than usual WNBA All-Star Game at sold-out Footprint Center.
“We’ve got work to do,” U.S. coach Cheryl Reeve said, particularly on defense, after the 117- 109 defeat, still a rarity for the American Olympians.
In 2021, Team USA lost 93-85 to Team WNBA then dropped another exhibition to Australia 70-67 before sweeping its games in Tokyo for a seventh consecutive Olympic gold medal.
The Mercury Olympians were led by Diana Taurasi, who started and in 20 minutes put up 14 points, six rebounds and five assists.
Brittney Griner had 10 points and seven boards in 14 minutes and Kahleah Copper, making her Olympic team debut, scored seven. Taurasi, going to a women’s basketball record sixth Olympics, didn’t attach much meaning to the loss.
“It’s a tough game to play in to be brutally honest,” the 42-year-old said. “It’s All-Star weekend, you get together and you’re trying to do all the right things because we’re preparing for Paris. We’re probably playing the second best team in the world.”
“They have an opportunity to go out there and play free like Arike [Ogunbowale], what a great basketball player.”
Ogunbowale scored a game-high 34 points, three more than Team USA’s Breanna Stewart, and won All-Star Game MVP for the second time. Her first MVP also came against Team USA.
Your #WNBAAllStar MVP:
ARIKE OGUNBOWALE. pic.twitter.com/22O622TC92— Eliav Gabay (@eliavgabay) July 21, 2024
“They came ready to play and want to win,” Ogunbowale said. “We’re not going to get embarrassed as well. I love competition. If I hear somebody is trying to beat, I’m going to try to beat them twice as hard.”
Ogunbowale soared from zero points at halftime (0-of-2) to 21 in the third quarter and 34 including 8-of-13 from 3-point. All of that after a halftime call out from Team WNBA coach Cheryl Miller.
“I wasn’t expecting her to say my name,” Ogunbowale said of Miller, the Mercury’s first coach from 1997-2000. “She said take a deep breath and play my game.” Ogunbowale said in June that she withdrew her name from consideration for the U.S. Olympic team.
“I woke up nervous, went to bed nervous…but that’s what I love about this game.”
Cheryl Miller is as fired up as ever to coach vs Team USA alongside Adrian Williams & @AnnMeyers:
“My GOAT, & perhaps, the GOAT for women’s basketball – Annie Meyers Drysdale.”#WNBAAllStar pic.twitter.com/vJBLgrZ4zU
— Eliav Gabay (@eliavgabay) July 20, 2024
“Me being me, I just felt the vibes,” Ogunbowale said on the podcast Nightcap. “When it comes to [USA Basketball], it really doesn’t have much to do with your game. It’s really about who they feel fits with the team. So I actually took my name out of the pool months ago.”
Reeve joked after the loss Saturday about whether “Arike is playing for any of these teams we play,” in Paris. Team WNBA scored 52 points in the paint and led by as many as 20 points (106-86) after a two-point lead (54-52) at halftime.
“We’ll take a lot of lessons from this,” Taurasi said. “It’s definitely not the result you wanted, but we know it’s the beginning of our journey. We’ll get on the plane tonight. I think that’s when the group starts jelling a little bit better and we start really understanding what the task at hand is.”
Team USA plays an exhibition against Germany in London on Tuesday before its Olympic group opener vs. Japan on July 29. Other group games are against Belgium on Aug. 1 and Germany on Aug. 4.
It’s the first All-Star game in league history with all 11 mascots in attendance as well. Fans are loving the interaction. pic.twitter.com/BxPAY6DZaV
— Jordan Spurgeon (@spurge_) July 21, 2024
Copper said, “It’s a chance to navigate through being a hooper. Whether it’s my role with my team (Mercury) then I get with Team USA, what my role is. I’m able to be a chameleon.”
Copper praised the Mercury for its third All-Star Game staging following 2000 and 2014. “Top tier, we set the bar extremely high. It’s going to be really hard to come after us after this overall experience.”
