USA have progressed to the championship game with an unblemished record so far and looked impressive throughout. In the semi-finals today, USA saw off Japan with a comprehensive victory 78-24 and will be looking to continue their winning streak in tomorrow’s game.
Following the game, USA’s Rose Hollermann, who led the scorers with 33 points in just 15 minutes of play, said:
“We are feeling really positive following that game. As always when we come off any win or loss, any game really, we look at what we need to improve on and what we need to get better at. So we’ll be looking at that tonight to see what we can get better at by tomorrow going into the championship game.
“Tomorrow we will plan on sticking to ourselves and our game, focusing on what we need to improve on and what we need to work on.”
Australia were in a much closer game in their semi-final, in what was a great battle between themselves and Great Britain. Australia narrowly defeated the reigning U25 World Champions, Great Britain by 42-36.
This will be the second time Australia and USA have met in the competition, having already played each other in the preliminary stage, in which USA came out on top, 56-31.
Australia’s Mary Friday looked ahead to the final, saying:
“The combination of winning tonight’s game and thinking our highest finish would be bronze and we will now be playing for silver or gold, I just feel we will come into the game and smash it, and just do the best we can.”
Japan and Great Britain will move to the 3-4 placing game and play for the bronze medal.
In the 5-8 crossover games, Germany bounced back from their quarter-final loss to defeat Thailand, whilst Turkey secured a historic win against South Africa. Germany will now meet Turkey in the 5-6 placing game.
Thailand and South Africa, who have both improved throughout the championship, will play for 7th and 8th position.
