Shakira Austin continues to make a big impact for Team USA in group play!
The USA Basketball women’s national team defeated Korea, 145-69 on Monday afternoon in Sydney in the 2022 FIBA Women’s World Cup. This was an all-time high-scoring record for Team USA and FIBA in a World Cup game.
The game was an offensive and defensive clinic for the Americans from start to finish where they shot a blistering 66 percent (62-of-94) from the field and never trailed. They outrebounded the Koreans, 56-20. They forced the Koreans to commit 20 turnovers while only committing seven themselves. And let’s say that the Americans also only committed FIVE fouls while the Koreans committed 18. If there is a definition of a perfect game, this was about as close to it as any.
Much of the scoring came from the posts. The bigger names like Brionna Jones scored 24 points and A’ja Wilson scored 20 more. But Washington Mystics center Shakira scored 16 points and grabbed 8 rebounds of her own off the bench in just 17 minutes!
Ariel Atkins only scored 2 points off the bench today.
You can watch the highlights here.
Team USA’s last game in group play is against Bosnia and Herzegovina. Tip off is at midnight Eastern time, or 2 p.m. on Tuesday. We’ll have a preview later in the early afternoon. Needless to say after a 4-0 start in group play, Team USA will be in the quarterfinals.