Lille: With a little over a minute left to play, Sami Whitcomb drove hard to the basket, dribbled in two elegant points while drawing the foul, and then slammed head-first into the padding beneath the ring.
That heavy contact might have floored someone else, but not Whitcomb, not tonight, not in that moment. She bounced right back up, threw her arms forward, flexed, and screamed – eyes closed, mouth wide open.
Sami Whitcomb: “We had to deal with the pressure and that’s what we did”.Credit: Getty Images
By the time she coolly drained her accompanying free throw, the Opals were up 70–59. The win over Canada was all but secured, and their chances to progress beyond the group stage at this Olympics were bolstered.
Things were a little different two days ago after a shock loss to Nigeria. Questions needed answering.
“We came together as a playing group, and we talked about it,” Whitcomb later said. “It was a group meeting where we addressed how shit it was. How it’s not OK. How it’s not who we are. It’s not what we want to be. Period.”
This contest between the Opals and Team Canada was a scrappy one from the very first drive when youngster Jade Melbourne was sent crashing into the wooden floor on a lay-up attempt. It was rough like that for much of the night, with only scarce moments of movement and flow. It was a tussle, with precious few easy open baskets, the constant two-way pressure forcing speculative shots and causing turnover after turnover. It was a game of mistakes.
Australian coach Sandy Brondello was more than happy to prevail (70–65) in those conditions, particularly after her Opals were too easily handled by Nigeria.
“We got smacked in the face and had to learn how to play against that physicality again because we have it in us,” Brondello said. “We just had to remember ourselves.”
Effort is what she saw on the court at Stade Pierre Mauroy, more than 200 kilometres north of Paris near the Belgian border, and effort is what international basketball is about. “Urgency. Taking some pride. Playing tough on defence,” she said. “You’ve gotta compete.”
A bruising encounter might just be exactly what this team needed to awaken, yet Brondello could also barely conceal how she felt about some of the officiating – bemused by both calls and non-calls alike. “Are we playing rugby? It felt like it was a rugby game out there,” she said. “But we came ready to play. We can play rugby with the best of them.”
The Opals didn’t have it all their way. Kia Nurse was creative, Shay Coffey industrious, and their best big, Kayla Alexander, proved a handful. WNBA star Bridget Carleton (19 points, 4 assists) threatened to tear the game apart.
Australia came out top in a tough battle with the Canadians.Credit: Getty Images
It took a full team effort to prevail. Ezi Magbegor had an outstanding eight-point first quarter filled with defensive intent. Lauren Jackson – as she always promises – was a presence in the maelstrom under the ring. Cayla George (11 points) turned back the clock with precision shooting. Steph Talbot (11 points, 9 rebounds) was a figure of strength. And Marianna Tolo (11 points) did all her grunt work without fuss.
“That’s the beauty of our team, right?” Tolo said. “We’re really deep, and anyone can step up at any moment. It’s harder to scout when you’ve got so many people to play against. You can’t just throw a trap at one person and shut the action down – you have to guard everyone on the floor.”
The team didn’t just show grit either, but turned things around tactically, too.
“We were definitely a lot more strategic in how we played tonight: where we were attacking and who we were attacking,” said Tolo. “We’re so excitable and we have so much energy, but we also took our time to get a good look.”
Jackson, now competing in her fifth Olympics, pointed to all things, little and big, from the dirty work of Tolo to clutch threes from George. “That’s Opals basketball, and it was fun to play,” Jackson said.
“My expectation of the girls is that they go out there and give their heart. And they did today, and I’m really proud of them. We can only get better from here.”
Whitcomb was the player of the night. Fouled out with 59 seconds left in the match, she walked to the bench with 19 points and 10 assists – a double-double – bathed in rapturous applause from the crowd and hugs from teammates. “We have a really close group. We back each other. We love each other,” Whitcomb said. “We knew we were going to bounce back, but we also had to deal with the pressure, and that’s what we did.”
They’ll need to do so again in three days. The Opals’ next opponent is France, who are ranked 7 but playing well above that level, and have that home court, home crowd advantage enjoyed by the host nation. They’ve also spent the past two months training together – another leg up on much of the field.
“You can see the chemistry that they have,” Brondello said. “You can see that they’ve spent a lot of time together, so we have to find a way to beat them. We need to win.”
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