After surviving Belgium, Team USA to face surprise Germany

Breanna Stewart and A’ja Wilson would not let that happen. The two best players in the world, according to their coach, Cheryl Reeve, scored 26 and 23 points en route to an 87-74 victory. The game was tied at 23-23 after the first quarter. A Jewell Loyd 3-pointer gave the U.S. a 40-29 lead midway through the second, and then a pull away to a comfortable double-digit lead emerged.

“They are just a really good team,” Reeve said of Belgium. “They are hard to play against. We’re obviously thrilled to play in this environment. We responded to some difficult moments and had to show some toughness. That is what it takes to win. This was terrific for us.”

Coach Reeve noted that 14,000 fans came to watch the same two teams play at the Olympic Qualifying Tournament at Antwerp in February.

“It just shows how much they love basketball in Europe,” added five-time gold medalist Diana Taurasi. “I played in Europe for a long, long time, and these are the atmospheres you get, quite a soccer feel. I could go back to the last five [Olympics], and there are always hard moments, and tonight was a really hard moment for us, and we came through.”

Belgium falls to 0-2, despite Emma Meesseman averaging more than 24 points per game, good for second in the Olympics. The Cats will meet winless Japan on Sunday, with a potential quarterfinal berth on the line. In addition to the top two teams in each group, two of the 3rd place finishers in each group advance to the knockout stage.

Undefeated Germany next for the US

Team USA now turns its attention to Germany, with an 11:15 a.m. ET tipoff on Sunday. Germany topped Japan, 75-64, earlier in the day on Thursday to improve to 2-0 in their Olympic debut. German forward Satou Sabally scored 33 points in the win, while her sister, Nyara Sabally, rested with the head injury she sustained in the opening game.

“It’s a credit to Coach [Lisa] Thomaidis,” Reeve said. “She is the perfect coach for this team with the amount of talent they have. They have played great. Our friendly game probably helped them a bit, and their first experience has gone quite well.”

Thomaidis spent seven years as national team coach for her native Canada before being pushed out after the Tokyo Olympics. She has now resurrected a program that had not competed on the world stage since hosting the 1998 World Cup.

“We’re such a talented team,” German center Marie Gülich said. “It is a question of finding us together, and once we do that, we are a really good team. Lisa means a lot to us and to the program. Her coming in as a woman and pushing for us as women in basketball, she is amazing and fights for us. She brings so much experience and knowledge, and we really benefit from it.”

Guard Alexis Peterson might be from Columbus, Ohio, originally, but she is fully immersed with Germany since her recent naturalization. Her 13 points and 6.5 assists are among the leaders at the tournament, and the team wouldn’t be where it is without her.

“People underestimated us and overlooked us,” Peterson said. “They called this the ‘Group of Death.’ To now stand here undefeated, is just a testament to our heart and our character. We’ve been treading in the right direction. From where we were last summer to where we are now — two wins in the Olympics for the first time ever. You can just see the growth, and it has been exponential to this point. I am looking forward to continuing to grow.”

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Turning back to 2016

The 2016 Final Four is most memorable for UConn’s completion of four consecutive national championships. However, in Sunday’s USA-Germany game, we are going to have the oddity of a player from each of the four teams on the floor. Team USA’s Stewart and Napheesa Collier played for UConn, while guard Kelsey Plum played for Washington. The Germans — Peterson and Gülich — represented Syracuse and Oregon State respectively.

As far as Final Fours where each team produced a future member of Team USA — it’s happened before, 1983 and 1989. First, Cheryl Miller and Pamela McGee (USC), Kim Mulkey and Janice Lawrence (Louisiana Tech), Teresa Edwards (Georgia) and Anne Donovan (Old Dominion) competed in the 1983 Final Four. Then, Bridgette Gordon and Daedra Charles (Tennessee), Vicky Bullett (Maryland), Ruthie Bolton (Auburn) and Venus Lacy (Louisiana Tech) in 1989.