Bird and Geno Auriemma /courtesy USA Basketball

The U.S. Senior Women’s National Team cruised to a 100-81 win over ZVVC USK Praha in Friday’s opener of the Ekaterinburg International Invitational. The game was as close as the late second quarter, when USK Praha pulled within three points, but the USA held a 14-5 advantage the rest of the period and then started the second half by outscoring USK Praha 16-8 to extend the lead to 20 points.

Sue Bird handed out nine assists to lead the USA’s attack. She started and played 28 minutes, scoring four points on 2-of-9 shooting. Storm teammate Swin Cash had two points from the free throw line and grabbed three rebounds. Five U.S. players scored double-figures, with Angel McCoughtry leading the way with 17 points on 8-of-9 shooting to go along with nine boards.

“I thought we did a good job,” said Bird. “The first game you never really know what to expect, there’s some jitters you have to get out, you’ve got to kind of get your feet. We definitely have some things to improve on, but for the most part we did a really good job. Everybody played hard and did a good job.”

Evanthia Maltsi had a huge game for USK Praha, scoring 26 points, handing out nine assists and grabbing seven  rebounds. Lake Washington High School’s Cathrine Kraayeveld started for USK Praha, finishing with nine points and eight rebounds.

The USA will take on MKB Euroleasing Sopron tomorrow.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 9th, 2009 at 4:11 pm and is filed under USAB, Uncategorized, bird, cash. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.