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"It was a great game for our team. All it takes
is one win sometimes to get going," said Hailey Van Lith. "So
hopefully that was the igniter to our fire."
Three-times Olympian Kevin Durant was at the Australia game,
while four-times NBA champion LeBron James and swimmer Katie
Ledecky, owner of 13 Olympic medals, were courtside to support
their compatriots for the Spain game.
"That is awesome," Van Lith said of the big name support. "They
ask us how our team is doing. They talk to us. They care how we
are doing."
"They have given us a little (advice) about handling the
pressure. They have shared some good advice about wearing the
USA on your chest."
By contrast, the U.S men suffered two more defeats, 20-18 to
Lithuania and 21-19 to Tokyo champions Latvia, who remain the
only unbeaten 3x3 team in Paris at the end of day three.
The U.S. were hampered by the absence of Jimmer Fredette, who
has a left leg injury and whose availability going forward will
be evaluated on a game-by-game basis.
Both U.S. teams remain rooted to the bottom of the pool
standings with their prospects of qualifying directly for the
semi-finals looking bleak.
In the pool stage, the teams play a round robin. The top two
from the pool go straight to the semi-finals and the next four
teams play off for the other two spots in the last four.
Latvia had earlier pulled off a swift 22-8 victory over China to
top the men's pool.
Top-ranked Serbia beat the Netherlands 21-19 when Strahinja
Stojacic ended the contest with an extraordinary long-range
two-pointer. They also defeated France 19-16 a few hours later
in a game interrupted by a rain storm.
In other women's matches, Germany inflicted a first loss on
Canada by 19-15 with a fine collective effort, and also beat
Azerbaijan 12-8 in the evening. Canada got back to winning ways
in the night session with a 13-9 victory on hosts France.
(Reporting by Benjamin Mallet; Editing by Toby Davis and Bill
Berkrot) [© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
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