Langhorne's Double-Double Lifts USA U19 Women's Squad to Win
6/10/2005 8:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Click Here to view photos of Maryland's Crystal Langhorne and Marissa Coleman at USA Basketball.
June 10, 2005
SAN DEIGO, Calif. - USA forward and Maryland Terrapin Crystal Langhorne posted a double-double of 21 points and 10 rebounds to help lead the USA Under-19 Women's Basketball team (2-0) to an 82-74 win over Australia (1-1) Thursday evening at the 2005 International Sports Invitational in San Diego, Calif. The win improved the U.S. to 2-0 and insured the Americans of a spot in Saturday's gold medal game.
The tournament's preliminary round action concludes Friday with Australia meeting Russia at 4 p.m. and the USA facing China at 6 p.m. The winner of Friday's Australia-Russia game will meet the USA in the women's gold medal game that will be held Saturday at San Diego State University's Cox Arena.
Although the U.S. led the majority of the game, the two teams battled from start to finish in a game that saw them just two points apart with 3:06 remaining. But an 8-0 American run in the game's final three minutes earned the United States the 82-74 win.
The USA enjoyed a seven-point lead late in the first quarter but only led 22-20 after one quarter then held on for a 43-39 lead at half.
Ahead 53-51 with 3:37 to play in the third quarter, the U.S. repeatedly went inside to Langhorne and she responded by scoring the USA's final 10 points of the stanza as the U.S. led 63-56 after three periods.
Langhorne (Willingboro, N.J./Willingboro) enjoyed a remarkable night, sinking all nine of her shots from the field, while converting on 3-of-4 free throws. Grabbing six offensive rebounds, she added three assists and two steals in just 19 minutes of action.
"I think the offense we are running really gets the post open and our guards and our other posts were getting me the ball," said Langhorne, who earned Atlantic Coast Conference Rookie of the Year honors after averaging 17.2 ppg. and 10.2 rpg. last season for the University of Maryland. "We have so many good players whoever gets the ball gets the ball. Someone else might score 20 one night, I might score 20 one night, so if it happens, it just happens."
"We continue to learn about ourselves as a team. Our post game was very, very good. In particular Crystal Langhorne just took over in the third quarter and her teammates did a great job helping her, getting her the ball in the right places. We're getting better each game which is important," said U.S. and Duke University mentor Gail Goestenkors.
"Australia is a tremendous running team so I thought we did a pretty good job with our transition defense. We still have a ways to go but again we're getting better with each game," she added.
For the second straight game the U.S. finished shooting above 50.0 percent from the floor, making 51.6 percent (32-62 FGs). Earning a 43-33 advantage on the glass, the U.S. committed 20 turnovers to Australia's 17. The U.S. limited Australia to just 45.2 percent (28-62 FGs) shooting, including 30.8 percent from 3-point.
Langhorne also started the USA's opening game of the tournament, helping the Americans to an 89-69 win over Russia. She tallied eight points on 3-for-4 shooting, to go with four rebounds, three steals and two blocks.
Marrisa Coleman (Cheltenham, Md./St. John's [D.C.]) has also seen playing time in both of the United States' games.
The 2005 International Sports Invitational is the opening training for the 15 finalists for the 2005 USA Basketball U19 World Championship Team. Following a two week break after finishing the International Sports Invitational, the U.S. will regroup in Colorado Springs, Colo., for a June 28- July 2 training camp, then head to Washington, D.C., to train July 3-6. Following five additional days (July 7-11) of training and two exhibition games against Hungary's U19 Team in Budapest, Hungary, the 2005 USA U19 Team will travel to Tunis, Tunisia, for the July 15-24 FIBA U19 World Championship Tournament.
