dpa
Paris
The United States rallied from 10 points down in the third quarter to beat France 67-66 in a women’s basketball final thriller and claim the last gold medal of the Paris Olympics on Sunday.
France almost levelled with the buzzer to force overtime but Gabby Williams had stepped just inside the three-point line, making the basket only worth two points.
That clinched a 61st match win in a row for the American team who got their eighth straight gold for an Olympic team event record. The last defeat was in the 1992 semi-finals against the Commonwealth of Independent States.
“We were just resilient in what we needed to do to go bucket for bucket. That is great basketball. That is what people want to see, our defence settled in and we started getting stops,” US top scorer A’ja Wilson said.
She added that in the second half “it just started to fall into our hands. They made tough shots, but that’s all a part of the game.” Coach Cheryl Reeve spoke of “an incredible basketball game.
“Two teams that left it all out there, France played with their identity, we couldn’t get to our identity because of what France were doing, so hats off to them. We are happy to be going home with gold.” Victory gave US player Diana Taurasi, who didn’t play in the final, a sixth Olympic gold in a row.
It came the day after the US had also beaten France for men’s gold, the first time that both Olympic finals were contested by the same teams.
The victory saw the US snatch first place in the final Paris medal table with a 40-44-42 haul from China which had 40-27-24.
A tense affair saw the US up 15-9 in a low scoring first quarter at the Bercy Arena but it was all square at 25-25 at the half.
France came out of the dressing room on fire with a 10-0 run but the US composed itself and earned the next eight points.
The US seemed safe when a pair of free throws from Kelsey Plum with 11.5 secs left put them up by two scores, 65-61. But a three-pointer from Williams made it a one-score game again.
Kahleah Copper made it 67-64 from the free throw line with 3.9 seconds on the clock which gave France one final chance. They moved the ball up quickly to Williams who converted but she had just entered the arc with her feet which proved decisive.
“Losing by one point is something really hard, but they can be proud of what they did,” French coach Jean Aime Toupane said of his team.
“We didn’t have like, you know, cool minds, cool spirit to play for gold. That kind of experience. We are building this team here.”
Australia beat Belgium 85-81 to take the bronze medal.
