Ohlde Posts Double-Double In Gold Medal Game
Jul 21, 2002 | Women's Basketball
July 21, 2002
RIBEIR?O PRETO, Brazil - Junior-to-be Nicole Ohlde posted a double-double with 11 points and 13 rebounds to lead the USA Basketball World Championship For Young Women Qualifying Team to an 81-50 win over Brazil Sunday in the gold medal game of the inaugural Confederation of Pan American Basketball Associations (COPABA) World Championship For Young Women Qualifying Tournament at the COC University gymnasium in Ribeirao Preto, Brazil.
"I was really excited," Ohlde said following the game. "I never thought that I would be in this position. It's just an amazing feeling and I'm so happy to be a part of it."
Fellow Wildcat Laurie Koehn netted six points on a pair of three-pointers and dished out two assists. The gold medal was the second for the Hesston, Kan., native.
"I think both gold medals (2000 and 2002) are a great feeling," Koehn said. "It's hard to put one above the other. But it's fun to have the chance to be able to come back and do this all over again. I'm just really lucky that I had the opportunity to come play with this great team, be on the floor with such great players and be coached by such great coaches. It was a blast."
Koehn finished the tournament as the team's leading three-point shooter, sinking 14 in four games. She also averaged 13 points per game.
"Everyone on the team deserves credit for anything that any one of us did individually," Koehn said. "Obviously, with our great post game, everyone was able to pass the ball really well, Cappie (Pondexter), all the guards, everyone deserves credit for this. It really was a team effort and it was exciting to play with everyone else on the floor."
Ohlde finished her first international tournament averaging 11.5 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. She shot 65.5 percent from the field.
Brazil foiled the USA's usual three-point play to start the game by winning the opening tip. However, the South Americans were not able to dash the USA's gold medal hopes that easily. The U.S. got the first two points of the game off a Jia Perkins (Texas Tech / Granbury, Texas ) jumper at 9:23, but shooting woes plagued the top two shooting teams in the tournament and after the first 4:10, Brazil was in the lead 7-2. The United States shot 1-of-8, while Brazil managed 2-of-7 and 3-of-3 from the line during that time. Facing the unfamiliar territory of trailing, something the North Americans had not done the entire tournament, did not faze the red, white and blue for long.
 Gold medal ceremony  | |
"I just made a few shots, got on a roll and we got a lead," said Hoffman. "That helped to get everybody else on a roll. I was just trying to do as much as possible to help out."
Both teams continued to struggle offensively in the second quarter and after nearly three minutes, the score stood at 17-11. Hoffman again got the U.S. back on track, scoring eight consecutive points for the U.S. in a 15-2 run that opened up the game 32-13 with 44 seconds to go before the break. Brazil scored the first half's final four points to pull to 32-17 at the midway buzzer.
The United States opened the third quarter on a 12-4 tear, as Brazil shot 2-of-8, to pull away 44-21 with 4:20 to go. Brazil was never able to recover and by the end the U.S. held a 25-point, 56-31, advantage. Continuing to balloon its lead in the final 10 minutes, the United States finished with the victory and the gold medal.
In addition to the double-doubles from Hoffman and Ohlde, Kara Brown-Braxton (Georgia / Jackson, Mich.) pitched in 13 points in the victory. Cappie Pondexter (Rutgers / Chicago, Ill.), who led all competitors in the tournament in assists, passed off for four and also was credited with four steals, while Lindsay Whalen (Minnesota / Hutchinson, Minn.) also notched four assists and four steals.
The USA shot 44.4 percent from the field (32-72), while Brazil managed to shoot just 33.3 percent (17-51 ) on the night. The U.S. outrebounded its South American rivals 43-26 and came up with 16 steals on 25 Brazilian turnovers. Finishing the tournament as the top two teams in field goal percentage, the USA shot 53.6 percent from the field overall, while Brazil shot 44.4 percent from the floor.
Hosted by Brazil in Ribeir?o Preto July 17-21 and featuring seven young women national teams from North, South and Central America as well as the Caribbean; Argentina, Brazil and the United States, as the top three nations in the COPABA tournament, qualified for the inaugural International Basketball Federation (FIBA) World Championship For Young Women, which is scheduled to be played in Dubrovnik, Croatia July 25 to August 3, 2003.
USA Young Women vs Brazil Young Women ------------------------------------------------------------------------OFFICIAL BASKETBALL BOX SCORE -- G A M E T O T A L SUSA Young Women vs Brazil Young Women07/21/02 2:15 p.m. at COC University, Ribeirao Preto, Brazil--------------------------------------------------------------------------------VISITORS: USA Young Women (4-0) TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDSNo. N A M E FG FGA FG FGA FT FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN04 Pondexter, Cappie * 3 8 1 2 0 0 0 2 2 1 7 4 3 0 4 2906 Perkins, Jia * 3 8 0 0 1 2 2 4 6 2 7 3 1 0 2 2610 Koehn, Laurie * 2 9 2 9 0 0 0 2 2 0 6 2 2 0 1 2412 Ohlde, Nicole * 3 7 0 0 5 6 5 8 13 1 11 2 1 1 0 3413 Hoffman, Ebony * 7 12 0 1 4 4 2 9 11 2 18 2 1 0 3 2505 Obaze, Amber 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 1 1807 Whalen, Lindsay 1 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 4 2 0 4 1108 Mazzante, Kelly 2 3 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 5 0 0 0 1 611 Schreiber, Heather 3 3 2 2 0 0 0 1 1 0 8 0 0 0 0 614 Stephens, Stacy 1 3 0 0 0 0 1 2 3 1 2 0 0 0 0 1015 Brown-Braxton, Kara 6 13 0 0 1 2 4 1 5 5 13 0 2 1 0 11TEAM ........................................ 0 0 0TOTALS 32 72 6 17 11 14 14 29 43 13 81 17 13 2 16 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 0- 0 .000 2nd Half: 32-72 .444 Game: .444 DEADBALL3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 0- 0 .000 2nd Half: 6-17 .353 Game: .353 REBOUNDSF Throw % 1st Half: 0- 0 .000 2nd Half: 11-14 .786 Game: .786 0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------HOME TEAM: Brazil Young Women (4-1) TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDSNo. N A M E FG FGA FG FGA FT FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN04 Claudia Leite * 3 7 0 1 2 2 1 1 2 0 8 2 2 1 0 4006 Ana Flavia Sackis * 0 5 0 3 2 2 0 2 2 0 2 2 6 0 1 2107 Juliana Belinazzo * 0 3 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 5 0 1 1811 Katia dos Santos * 3 11 1 3 6 6 0 13 13 3 13 0 5 2 2 3413 Flavia Santos * 6 11 0 0 2 2 0 3 3 1 14 0 2 0 3 3605 Fernanda Beling 1 5 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 2 5 2 0 0 2210 Alessandra Camargo 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 1012 Karen Gustavo 3 5 3 4 0 0 0 4 4 2 9 0 3 0 1 19TEAM ........................................ 0 0 0TOTALS 17 51 4 14 12 12 1 25 26 8 50 9 25 3 8 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 0- 0 .000 2nd Half: 17-51 .333 Game: .333 DEADBALL3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 0- 0 .000 2nd Half: 4-14 .286 Game: .286 REBOUNDSF Throw % 1st Half: 0- 0 .000 2nd Half: 12-12 1.000 Game: 1.000 0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------OFFICIALS: Eduardo Becerra (CHI), Karen Lasuik (CAN)TECHNICAL FOULS:USA Young Women - noneBrazil Young Women - noneATTENDANCE:SCORE BY PERIODS: 1st 2nd 3rd 4th OT1 OT2 TOTALUSA Young Women 16 16 24 25 81Brazil Young Women 9 8 14 19 50
Gold Medal Game
