Basketball: US women tear up Czechs in basketball

LONDON: The Czech Republic made a perfect start but the US women’s basketball team enjoyed the happier ending as they extended their Olympic winning streak to 37 games with an 88-61 victory in Group A action. The Czechs scored the first 10 points of the game and continued to rain down three-pointers for the rest of the first quarter before the US ratcheted up their defensive pressure to take control of the contest. After storming ahead in the second quarter, a 10-2 run after halftime put the US 58-40 in front and their stingy defence held the Czechs to just nine points in the third as the Americans turned the game into a rout. The US will finish preliminary round action against China today before they line up for a quarter-final two days later in the pursuit of a fifth straight Olympic title.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 5^th, 2012.