It wasn’t quite, however the United States ladies’s basketball group protected its 8th straight gold medal with a tight 67– 66 win over France on Sunday at Bercy Arena to finish up the Olympic Games.
A back-and-forth fight for Olympic immortality, the video game was connected at 55– 55 with 3:45 to play. France remained in the last minutes, cutting Team USA’s result in one with 5 seconds staying at 65– 64, however Kahleah Copper tore down a set of totally free tosses and French forward Gabby Williams’s foot was on the line on buzzer-beater that she banked in.
As she has throughout the whole Olympic competitors, A’ja Wilson starred for Team USA, tallying 21 points, 13 rebounds and 4 blocks in 33 minutes. Copper and Kelsey Plum were the only other 2 Americans to score in double figures with 12 points each.
Williams was the driving force behind France’s near-upset, scoring 5 of her team-high 19 points in the last 5 seconds. She nailed a three-pointer with 5 seconds delegated make it a one-point video game, and banked in a shot after capturing a pass from colleague Marine Johannes as time ended– however her foot was on the line.
— NBC Olympics & & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 11, 2024
The gold medal video game in Paris marked simply the 3rd time throughout its present 61-game winning streak in the Olympics that the United States won by less than 10 points– a four-point win over Russia in 2004, a nine-point success over Nigeria in 2021 and a one-point win versus France in 2024.
France led by as lots of as 8 points early in the 2nd half, however the Americans went on a 20– 10 go to liquidate the 3rd quarter and got in the 4th up by 2 points. Group USA had a hard time offensively in the very first half, scoring simply 25 points– their least expensive overall in a half in these Olympic Games.
The United States now has actually won gold medals in 10 of the 13 ladies’s basketball competitions in Olympic history. The Americans won the silver medal in 1976, withdrew from the 1980 Games and won the bronze in 1992. U.S. females’s basketball’s present 61-game winning streak in the Olympics go back to its last loss to the Soviet Union in 1992.