2005 USA Women's Youth Festival
2005 USA Women’s Youth Festival
Two favorites reach Gold Medal Game
U.S.A. Olympic Training Center - Colrado Springs, CO
Team USA Blue vs. Team Canada
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| Latara Darrett (IMG Academy, FL - Chino, CA) sticks the jumper for Team USA-Blue. |
Team USA-Blue entered the semis as the Festival favorite to win the Gold after going undefeated in the preliminary round of play, but that didn’t appear to bother Team Canada, who came out with upset on their minds. Trading hoops back and forth with Team USA-Blue they took a 19-18 lead at the end of quarter number one.
The game stayed relatively close throughout the 2nd quarter but Team USA-Blue slowly started to show their superiority getting baskets from Dymond “Shake & Bake” Simon (5-5/125 - St. Mary’s H.S., Avondale, AZ) and Christy Marshall (6-0/165 - Beach H.S., Savannah, GA) to put them ahead 34-30 heading into the half.
The players from Team Canada are going to be hard to deal with when they get back home because they played some of the best players in the U.S. and hung tough. A basket by Julie McMurray (6-0, Cardston H.S., Cardston, Alberta-Canada) helped Team Canada cut the lead to 45-40 with just over 6:00 minutes left in the 3 rd quarter of play.
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| Jordan Murphree (Brock H.S., TX) plays a little "Peek-A-Boo" as she looks for an open teammate. |
Every time it looked like the tide was going to turn Big Blue would turn it up a notch, some tough rebounding by Amanda Thompson (6-0/170 - Whitney Young H.S., Chicago, IL) along with some clutch baskets from Bridgette Mitchell (6-0/165 - The Peddie School, Trenton, N.J.) and Latara Darrett (5-10/148 - IMG Academy, FL - Chino, CA) finished off a 12-0 run to give Team USA-Blue a comfortable 56-42 lead at the end of the 3rd quarter.
The 4th quarter was pretty much used by Team USA-Blue to dot their I’s and cross their T’s as they came away with a solid 77-55 win; advancing them into the Gold Medal game on Sunday. Simon led four Team USA-Blue players in double figures with 16 points. Mitchell added 14 and Darrett and Jordan Murphree (5-11/145 - Brock H.S., Weatherford, TX) each finished with 10 points.
McMurray and Kelsey Adrian (6-1 - Brookswood Secondary, Langley, British Columbia-Canada) led Team Canada with 9 points apiece.
Team USA-Red vs. Team USA-White
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| Brittaniey Raven (North Crowley H.S., TX - USA-Red) and Nikkitta Gartrell (Mayls H.S., GA - USA-White) wait for the action to get started. |
During the prelims Team USA-Red put a pretty solid beating on Team USA-White so you knew Team USA-White was going to hit the floor juiced up and ready to roll and roll they did; behind the scoring of Cait McMahan (5-6/130 - Heritage H.S., Maryville, TN), Jacki Gemelos (5-11/160 - St. Mary’s H.S., Stockton, CA) and the rebounding of Jayne Appel (6-4/185, Carondelet H.S. - Pleasant Hill, CA) Team USA-White jumped out to a 29-14 lead at the end of the 1st quarter.
Now if Team USA-White thought it was going to be as easy as it looked they had another thought coming because Team USA-Red strapped it up and Porsha Phillips (6-2/178 - Redan H.S., Stone Mountain, GA), Tina Charles (6-3/182 - Christ the King H.S., Jamaica, N.Y.) and Morghan Medlock (6-0/168 - Narbonne H.S., Harbor City, CA) went to work crashing the boards and scoring as they cut the lead to 41-33 at the half.
Phillips had one of her better overall games of the Festival as she continued to hit her patented turn-around jumper in the paint to pull her team to within four 54-50. Sensing that “Old Moe” was starting to jump sides Gemelos and Monica Wright (5-11/156 - Forest Park H.S., Woodbridge, VA) picked up the pace for Team USA-White scoring some big baskets giving them a 58-50 lead after three quarters of play.
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| Jayne Appel (Carondelet H.S., CA) stretches out all of her 6-4" frame to block this shot attempt by Porsha Phillips (Redan H.S., GA). |
Team USA-Red made one last run but it wasn’t going to be their night as Team USA-White went on to the “Big Payback” winning 76-63 sending them into the Gold Medal game and the chance for another “Big Payback” against Team USA-Blue.
Gemelos and McMahan led Team USA-White scoring 17 and 16 points respectively, McMahan also dished out 6 assists. Appel did a nice job ripping down 11 boards. Charles recorded her forth “Duce” of the Festival scoring a game high 22 points while pulling down a game high 13 rebounds for Team USA-Red. Phillips just missed her “Duce” scoring 11 points and grabbing 8 rebounds. Amber White (5-7/160 – Coatesville H.S., Coatesville, PA) added 10 points and 4 steals.
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