U.S. women’s hoops team finishes Olympic pre-qualifying tourney 3-0



12:30 AM ET

Mechelle VoepelespnW.com

CloseMechelle Voepel covers the WNBA, women’s college basketball, and other college sports for espnW. Voepel began covering women’s basketball in 1984, and has been with ESPN since 1996.

The U.S. women’s basketball national team wrapped up its Olympic pre-qualifying tournament with a 3-0 record by beating Colombia 104-48 on Sunday in Bahía Blanca, Argentina.

This was the last competition of 2019 for the Americans.

Las Vegas’ A’ja Wilson led Team USA with 23 points (9-of-13 shooting from the field) and nine rebounds. Chicago’s Diamond DeShields and Dallas’ Arike Ogunbowale each scored 17 points, with DeShields getting nine rebounds. Dallas’ Skylar Diggins-Smith had eight points and nine assists.

The Americans beat Brazil 76-61 on Thursday and Argentina 91-34 on Saturday in the tournament. Team USA finished its fall schedule 12-1, winning the FIBA AmeriCup in September in Puerto Rico with a 6-0 mark and going 3-1 in exhibitions against college squads earlier this month. The Americans’ lone loss was 93-86 at No. 1 Oregon on Nov. 9.

The U.S. squad will not play again until 2020, when it has two more college exhibitions: vs. UConn on Jan. 27 and vs. Louisville on Feb. 2.

Then the Americans will play in one of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments, which are Feb. 6-9 in Belgium, China, France and Serbia. The 16 teams competing are split into four groups; the draw to determine each group will be Nov. 27.

The United States qualified for the 2020 Olympics by virtue of winning the 2018 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup but is playing in the qualifying events to have more competition time as a team. The Americans will be going for their seventh consecutive Olympic gold medal in the Tokyo Games.



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