July 8, 2007

Moscow, Russia. -

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The 2007 USA Basketball U21 World Championship Team (8-0) held off a late Australia (6-2) attack for a 96-73 gold medal victory on Sunday evening at the FIBA U21 World Championship in Moscow. Auburn rising junior DeWanna Bonner netted 14 points in 16 minutes of play in the world championship final.

"This is the best," Bonner said. "I can't really express the feelings that I have right now after hearing our national anthem played and seeing the confetti come down. It is just a great feeling. We really had to step our game up defensively in the fourth quarter after Australia made that run. We fed off of each others energy and we came out with the win."

The gold medal for Bonner is her second in two years as she won gold last summer with the USA U20 National Team.

The U.S. jetted out on a 15-3 opening run and by the first quarter break the squad, which never trailed in the game, was up 32-21. The United States pounded away inside in the first half, but when Australia's posts collapsed on the USA's bread and butter, they kicked it outside. That fueled the USA's perimeter game, which produced eight 3-pointers in the first half (8-18 3pt FGs) as the U.S. took a 15-point, 55-40 lead into the locker room.

"It was a great game for our team defensively and rebounding-wise," said USA U21 National Team and Duke University head coach Joanne P. McCallie. "I really felt that we wanted to play Australia again. We didn't feel great about our first game against them. This time I felt we pressured the ball much more so and disrupted them much more and took advantage of opportunities. It really was a total team effort."

The third quarter saw the Americans pull further away and with 10 minutes to play the lead stood at 75-56 and it seemed the game was in the bag. However, Australia gave it one final try. As the Americans lagged on defense Australia reeled off 11 points in a little over three minutes to close to within eight points at 6:51.

McCallie called a time out to regroup and remind her squad what they had come for. It worked as Abby Waner (Duke) got a steal that led to an Essence Carson (Rutgers) basket at 6:06, sparking a 10-0 run that included steals from Jolene Anderson (Wisconsin) and Crystal Langhorne (Maryland) and the U.S. was back in command 85-67. Australia never again had a chance as the Americans closed the game strong for the gold medal victory.

For the eighth time in as many days the United States ruled the boards with a 52-31 rebounding advantage.