Story By: Erin Zollars
Photos By: Sol Tucker
Washington, D.C–
In the final game of a two game FIBA Womens Qualifying Tournament, USA Basketball showed no mercy on Puerto Rico with a 93-55 victory.
One day before the USA women had a little bit of a battle against Belgium, but the second half scoring sparked by Kelsey Plum gave them all they needed to take that victory over the Emma Meesseman led squad.
Six players scored in double figures for the Americans, with Washington Mystics guard Ariel Atkins scoring 14 in 17 minutes of playing action. In addition to being a consistent defensive presence, she was also the beneficiary of this pass from Alyssa Thomas on the fast break.
Team USA is now finished with its slate of games in the World Cup Qualifiers. Although they already qualified for the World Cup in last year’s Olympics, these games still provided valuable experience for some of the returning Olympians who didn’t play much in Tokyo like Atkins, and some post players like Jones have put themselves in a better position for a call up this summer.
The Puerto Ricans will travel to the Dominican Republic to play Russia in their final game on Monday. They will have to win that game to keep their World Cup hopes alive. Tip off for that game is at 2 p.m. ET and it can be streamed on FIBA’s YouTube channel.
