Spain opens women's basketball at Olympics by beating China 90-89 in OT
Maria Araujo hit a 3-pointer with 3:06 left in overtime as Spain finished off a rally and beat China 90-89 to open women’s basketball group play at the Paris Olympics with a flourish
VILLENEUVE-D'ASCQ, France -- Maria Araujo hit a 3-pointer with 3:06 left in overtime as Spain finished off a rally and beat China 90-89 on Sunday to open women's basketball group play at the Paris Olympics with a flourish.
Queralt Casas tossed the ball into the air as the buzzer sounded after Li Yueru scored inside with 4 seconds left for the final margin, then the Spaniards came together for a giant hug jumping up and down to celebrate knocking off the world's No. 2-ranked team.
Alba Torrens, Spain's captain, called it an “amazing victory.”
“We didn’t stop believing, we didn’t stop working, we didn’t stop adjusting,” she said.
Spain had a chance to win in the final seconds of regulation. Leonor Rodriguez was knocked to the floor on her tying 3-pointer with 6.5 seconds to go only to see her free throw rim out leaving the score tied at 76.
China's long heave hit the backboard at the buzzer.
Spain took the lead to start overtime on a bucket by Megan Gustafson, and Rodriguez had a final chance to put the game away. She missed her first free throw with 13.2 seconds to go, then sank the second to make it 90-87.
Gustafson, the AP women's college basketball player of the year in 2019 from Iowa, led Spain with 29 points. Rodriguez finished with 25 as the fourth-ranked Spaniards try to bounce back after finishing sixth at the Tokyo Games. Spain lost to the United States in the final at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
Li Yueru had a game-high 31 points and 15 rebounds. Li Meng added 13 points.
China lost to Serbia in the 2021 Tokyo quarterfinals. The Chinese came into these games second in the world after losing to the U.S. at the 2022 FIBA World Cup.
The Chinese led 37-33 at halftime and 59-53 going into the fourth. Coach Zheng Wei said they made a lot of mistakes due to chemistry issues with a new team.
“There were a lot of techniques and strategies that were supposed to work out, but we didn’t have the time to work them out,” she said.
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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games