US, Russia, win women’s Olympic openers

LONDON – The United States struggled against Olympic newcomer Croatia before pulling away for a 81-56 victory Saturday to kick off its bid for a fifth straight gold medal.

Earlier, American-born Becky Hammon scored eight straight points down the stretch to help her adopted nation of Russia rally for a 58-53 victory over Canada on the opening day of Olympic women’s basketball.

Trailing 50-40 with six minutes left, Russia closed the game with an 18-3 run led by Hammon. Anna Petrakova hit a 3-pointer and a lay-in to get the spurt started. Then Hammon took over, after struggling in the first three quarters of the Group B game.

“You just keep playing and good things will happen,” said Hammon, who plays for the WNBA’s San Antonio Silver Stars. “Defensively we got a lot better in the fourth quarter. We got some deflections and were able to run.”

China beat the Czech Republic 66-57 and Turkey routed Angola 72-50 in the Olympic debut for both teams in the Americans’ Group A.

In the day’s final match, Lauren Jackson scored 18 points to lead Australia to a 74-58 victory over Britain, spoiling the host country’s Olympic debut.

The Americans won their 34th consecutive Olympic contest, but were even behind at one point against Croatia, a team that has never played a major tournament before and which missed its first 14 shots.

“Just because you are the United States and No. 1-ranked team in the world doesn’t mean you are going to win easily at the Olympics,” U.S. coach Geno Auriemma said.

Tina Charles and Candace Parker each had double-doubles and Angel McCoughtry provided a spark off the bench to help the Americans run away in the fourth quarter.

The U.S., which has dominated its opponents en route to the last four gold medals, only led 53-49 early in the fourth quarter before a 16-0 run put the game out of reach.

McCoughtry finished with 13 points. Charles had 14 points and 10 rebounds; Parker finished with 11 points and 13 boards.

Jelena Ivezic scored 22 points and Marija Vrsaljko added 19 for Croatia.

Hammon is playing in her second Olympics for Russia, the European champions. The South Dakota native became a Russian naturalized citizen before the Beijing Games and helped Russia win the bronze there. Because she hadn’t played for the United States in any major FIBA-sanctioned international events, she is allowed to compete for Russia in the Olympics.

And she delivered when Russia needed her most.

“We found good balance only at the end and we went to our leader,” Russia coach Boris Sokolvskiy said. “Becky understood that her 3-point shot was not good tonight so she went under the basket and created many opportunities for us.”

Her layup with 2:35 left tied the game at 50. She followed 30 seconds later with a basket that gave Russia its first lead since early in the opening quarter. Hammon then scored another layup that made it 54-51 with 1:06 left. She capped her own run with another layup.

“I couldn’t throw it in the ocean if I was sitting in a boat,” said Hammon, who missed all five of her three-point attempts. “I just kept working and believing eventually the shots would fall. My teammates kept telling me to keep shooting.”

Canada couldn’t make another basket the rest of the way and couldn’t stop Hammon.

“She’s a great player, she’s a clutch player and picked us a part in the first half,” said Kim Smith, who led Canada with 20 points. “In the second half she took them on her back and made some really amazing finishes on her lay-ups.”

Canada returned to the Olympics for the first time in 12 years after earning the final spot in the women’s field. Despite the loss, the team wasn’t discouraged.

“Honestly we knew we were good coming in,” Smith said. “We’re a team that’s under the radar, but we don’t feel like we can’t compete here. We’re confident we can come into any game and compete.”

Canada qualified for the Olympics for the first time since 2000 after finishing fifth in the pre-Olympic qualifier earlier this month.

Russia is missing its star center Maria Stepanova, who is out with a knee injury.