(Guru’s Note: Kathleen Radebaugh is a senior at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia and sportswriter for The Hawk campus publication who previously has written back on the original Womhoops Guru blog reports from the WNBA All-Star game in Washington and the Washington Mystics.)
By Kathleen Radebaugh
TRENTON, N.J. _ Chemicals from one substance transform into another. They meet, bond, and react. Thousands of thousands of different types of chemical reactions occur in the body and are vital to its structure and function.
Watch a women’s basketball game. It is chemistry personified. One will see the thousands of thousands different reactions and transformations players and coaches endure for the win.
In a Sunday afternoon exhibition game, USA Women’s Senior National Team defeated Australia Senior National, 96-64, here at the Sovereign Bank Arena here. Three elements that enabled USA’s crushing win were veterans off of the bench tallying 20 points, young collegiate blood hitting second half three’s, and a full court press forcing turnovers. With elements like these reacting with a talented coaching staff, someone somewhere should be shouting “Eureka.”
Tina Thompson’s chemical reaction was in waiting. Joining the training camp just two days ago, Thompson, starting forward for the Houston Comets (averaging 18.8 ppg), subbed at the top of the second quarter for USA and immediately completed a three-pointer increasing the lead, 21-8.
“Once you step back into the environment, everything just flows,” Thompson said. “It is a different mindset coming in and playing here because you have to be ready at all times. A lot of us on our individual (WNBA and college) teams start the game so you are mentally ready and focused. When you are on the bench, you have to watch the tempo of the game and see how things are going. When you number is called, you just have to step in and make it happen.”
Thompson did not hesitate in her drives to the basket and showed her quickness within the paint with her jump shots and feet work. Thompson finished the afternoon with 21 points.
“We have had short numbers of people, but our intensity has been good since training camp,” said Anne Donovan, head coach for USA Women’s Senior National Team and the WNBA’s Seattle Storm. “We just got Tina and obviously it’s a nice addition to pull our offense up. We have some great kids that have been working hard since the beginning of our camp towards our gold medal agility.”
Sunday’s roster of only ten players will increase towards the end of September when the team travels to Chile for the FIBA Americas Tournament that gives the champion a slot in next summer’s Olympics in Beijing, China.
In fact, help will begin to arrive almost immediately, now that the new WNBA champion Phoenix Mercury and previous champion Detroit Shock have completed the playoffs.
The WNBA title game won by Phoenix Sunday in Detroit kept the Mercury’s Diana Taurasi and former Rutgers star Cappie Pondexter away from here. It also caused the absences of the Shock’s Swin Cash, Cheryl Ford, and Katie Smith, while Phoenix’s Penny Taylor would have otherwise been with the Australian team.
The USA squad has a total of 27 players on its roster, including eight Olympic gold medalists, five World Championship gold medalists and all 12 members of the 2006 USA World Championship Team.
The two teams, who contested for the 2004 Olympic gold medal won by USA in Athens, Greece, will meet again Wednesday night in Uncasville, Conn., at the Mohegan Sun Arena, the home of the WNBA Connecticut Sun.
This USA chemical equation would not be complete without some young, collegiate elements. Three collegiate players on the team Candice Wiggins (Stanford), Candace Parker (Tennessee), and Courtney Paris (Oklahoma) still have to register their cars for campus parking.
Wiggins, a senior for the Cardinal powerhouse in the Pac-10 conference, scored the second highest number of points (18) Sunday afternoon, completed 3-out-of-4 three-point shots, and only had one turnover. She knows if the ball will go in as soon as it leaves her hands. Her face softens and she begins to shuffle backwards down the court. Within five minutes of each other in the third quarter, Wiggins completed two three’s, stretching the lead to 29 points, 71-42.
Wiggins’ teammate, Courtney Paris, a center for the Sooners, totaled 12 points and three assists. Paris’ size and strength gives her a unique advantage in controlling the post, but she may need time adjusting to a whole new science experiment: pro-ball.
“In college it is a lot easier for me to pick my spot and go get the ball, because I am much stronger than anyone else,” said Paris, whose team is again a favorite in the Big 12 conference. “But tonight, it was a lot harder [wider paint and tougher players] so that is just something I am going to have to adjust to.”
Paris sees herself with the team in Chile, but in order to satisfy Donovan’s wants, she is going to have to rebound more offensively and defensively and keep making her free throw attempts.
With reliable veterans and fresh legs working and reacting together, team USA tested their endurance by starting full court pressure predominately in the beginning of the third quarter.
Australia totaled 28 turnovers and finished the game with a 39.7% field goal percentage. Wiggins led with four steals followed by Parker of the defending NCAA champs and former Tennessee star Kara Lawson of the Sacramento Monarchs tying with three steals apiece. Full court pressure drastically changed the tempo and intensity of the game because Australia in the third quarter started to fight back harder.
USA finished the night with 20 turnovers. Australian guard Jenni Screen’s three pointer brought her team within 12 points of USA in the top of the third quarter and Paris found herself in foul trouble. Jessica Davenport, center for New York Liberty, stepped in and guarded the post, forcing Australia out of the equation.
“I brought in energy and was a presence in the post to help out my teammates,” said Davenport. “Every time I come to a training camp, it gets better and better. We play against each other during the season and now you come in and get to play with each other as a team and that helps a lot.”
Throughout training camp, there is a clear focus as to keeping this chemical reaction as strong as possible.
“No matter how many points you are up, no matter how many points you win by, we want to be almost perfect, if that is possible,” said Thompson. “When you have turnovers like that, it bothers you a lot. It is just one of those things that happens, but you onto the next game with the same focus and try not to make those same mistakes.”
For them, their favorite element is Au. For those of you who have forgotten your science lessons, Au is the chemical symbol for Gold.
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