USA withstands Belgium, environment to reach another quarterfinals

Playing just six miles away from the Belgium border, Team USA earned another win over the country while essentially playing a role game.

The Americans downed Belgium, 87-74, Thursday, Aug. 1 from the Pierre Mauroy Stadium in France. In an Olympic qualifier in February, the US beat the country on its home soil by two points.

Before this outing, the gold medal favorites had won its first two games this summer by more than 26 points.

Regardless of the margin of victory, this year’s national team has reached yet another quarterfinals as the program continues its chase for a record eighth straight gold medal. Thursday’s victory was also the 57th straight Olympic win for the international mainstay that hasn’t lost since 1992.

Group play will conclude Sunday with a meeting against a Germany team that’s also undefeated through its first two games of this year’s event.

With everything to play for along with an added boost from the hometown fans, Belgium had a 6-0 run early in the third quarter after going down by double-digits for the second time in the game. Soon after, it would be trimmed to five.

Reserve forward Napheesa Collier solely responded to that run with five straight points on her way to seven for the game.

About midway through the fourth quarter, Team USA built its largest lead of the game at 13 points on another 5-0 run. That spurt was highlighted by an offensive rebound from reserve forward Alyssa Thomas that led to a three-pointer from guard Jewell Loyd and a defensive rebound from the former that wound up being a layup for teammate Kelsey Plum.

As it had all game long, Belgium once again battled back to cut it to single-digits on back-to-back threes only to have the US go on 7-0 run to build a new largest lead of 14 points.

Two-time WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart had a steal during that stretch and closed the game with two blocks in the final 1:04 of regulation. Those two blocks included one at the buzzer on a 30-plus foot heave by Belgium.

Prior to that staple to end the game, New York Liberty teammate Sabrina Ionescu cashed in on a long three on the other end as the shot clock dwindled to zero. She followed the shot by shushing the crowd as she came back down the court.

Stewart started the game a perfect 6-for-6 and suffered her first miss just before halftime. She’d lead all scorers with 26 points on 8-for-14 shooting to go along with seven rebounds, four assists, three blocks and a steal.

Fellow two-time WNBA MVP teammate A’ja Wilson posted another double-double with 23 points and 13 rebounds. The tandem of herself along with Stewart have combined for 93 points through the first two games of the group play stage.