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After a tight win earlier in the day to stay alive, the United States women’s 3×3 basketball team is headed to the semifinals.
The United States rolled over China 21-13 on Saturday night in France, marking its second straight win over the country in a matter of hours. The victory officially pushed the Americans into the semifinals, which is a remarkable feat after their slow start to open play at La Concorde in the Paris Olympics.
The women’s team started 0-3 in group play, but then rattled off four straight wins — including one over China on Saturday afternoon — to close out pool play and earn a spot in the play-in game. The United States edged out a 14-12 win over China in their last game, which gave them the No. 3 seed in the tournament and set up Saturday night’s rematch in the play-in round.
Then after a tight start, Dearica Hamby erupted on a huge 5-0 solo run for the United States to break the game wide open. The Los Angeles Sparks forward hit back-to-back 2-pointers before drilling a one-point shot to suddenly put the Americans up by four. Hamby then found Cierra Burdick cutting for a backdoor layup to make it a 6-0 run that gave the United States a five-point lead — its largest of the game up until that point.
Though China cut the deficit to three, the Americans never relented. Rhyne Howard sparked a quick 4-1 run with a 2-pointer of her own, and then Hamby hit a one-pointer with about 90 seconds left to push their lead back to five. China didn’t score for the final 1:57 of the game, and they managed just two buckets from Mingling Chen in the last three minutes. Howard, a two-time All-Star with the Atlanta Dream, and Hamby then added three points in the final 10 seconds to close the game out early and give the United States the eight-point win. It marked the first time in the competition that the Americans had hit 21 points as a team.
Hamby finished with nine points on three 2-pointers in the win. Burdick added five points and eight rebounds, and Howard finished with five points. Jiyuan Wan had four points and three rebounds for China.
The United States will now advance to the semifinals on Monday, where it will take on Spain. Canada played its way into the other semifinals game, and will face Germany in the first matchup. The bronze medal and gold medal games will be played later on Monday afternoon.