NBA
Liberty Well Represented in Olympic Knockout Round
The New York Liberty’s seafoam stars are set to play for gold.
The quarterfinal pairings for the women’s basketball competition of the Paris Olympics have been unveiled, with the action set to get underway on Wednesday. Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart will look to guide the United States to its eighth consecutive gold medal while their own head coach and a recent teammate stand in their way.
Sandy Brondello, the leader of Australia’s group, has gotten her Opals back into the knockout round after an early ousting from the Tokyo Games three years prior while Marine Johannes is repping the host nation of France. Elsewhere, Leonie Fiebich and Nyara Sabally have been working with the German national team in its maiden Olympic voyage, though both have been battling injuries.
With group play completed in Lille, the finals will be staged in the main hub of Paris.
View the full quarterfinal pairings below …
While the Americans’ presence was well expected, Nigeria has been one of the more inspiring stories of Olympic play: with a win over Canada in the group play finale on Sunday, D’Tigress becomes the first African team, male or female, to partake in an Olympic quarterfinal. The squad is coached by Tulane assistant Rena Wakama and features Kentucky star Adebola Adeyeye. Meanwhile, Team USA enters the quarterfinal in a 58-game winning streak, one kept alive by the dominant efforts of Stewart and A’ja Wilson (Las Vegas), as well as a reliable bench unit that ensures little, if any, quality dropoff.
Brondello set a goal of earning a medal after the washout in Tokyo. After an initial hiccup (losing to Nigeria in the opening stage of group play), the Opals still have a chance at that goal after consecutive wins over Canada and host nation France. Standing in their way is a Nigeria group led by captain Tina Krajišnik in its third Olympic showing. The Serbians have played for the bronze medal in each of their first two showings, winning it in 2016.
The Liberty’s past international sensation is set to meet two of their fill-ins, as Johannes is seeking to do her home nation proud while armed with homecourt advantage. Liberty fans are probably hoping that the German Olympic effort, its first in program history, ends as soon as possible. Sabally, playing with her sister Satou (Dallas) was the victim of friendly fire when she endured a head injury after running into a Fiebich screen in Germany’s opener. Fiebich herself offered a scorching start for Germany against the Americans on Sunday but left in the second half due to an apparent shoulder ailment.
A blowout win over Japan on Sunday put the Belgians into the quarterfinals for the first time. Led by 2019 WNBA Finals MVP Emma Meesseman, the Cats notably took Team USA to the brink during a matchup in the qualifying tournaments in February, a game that required heroics from Stewart to escape. Meanwhile, Spain was the only other team beyond the States to emerge from group play undefeated. Spain’s Megan Gustafson (Las Vegas) and rookie Julie Vanloo are the lone forms of active WNBA representation in this one.
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