Hailey Van Lith and Team USA kept their chance to reach the knockout stage alive by beating Spain in women’s 3×3 basketball. The Americans moved to a 1-3 record with three games left in pool play.
TCU’s Hailey Van Lith and the women of Team USA 3x3 have struggled since they started at the Paris Olympics. They went 0-3 in their first games, but finally got a W in a must-win game Thursday afternoon.
“I think we played our best complete game today, but we got some tough calls at the end and that’s just how three on three is so we’ll focus on the next game. I think you know end of game scenarios the last couple games we’re kind of lost in the last two minutes so if we can tighten that up, I think we have a chance to win every game,” Van Lith said after their loss to Australia early Thursday afternoon.
With LeBron James and more watching, the squad secured a 17-11 win over Spain to claim its first win in the tournament on Thursday evening in Paris.
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The women’s 3x3 team, with different players, won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in the sports debut at the Games. The Americans were also favored to do well in Paris, but that hasn’t materialized yet. Dropping their first three games including a loss to Germany in the opener.
Van Lith, who transferred to TCU as a grad student in the spring, said it’s not about what’s happening around her, but rather what’s happening on the court.
“I don’t want any part of [the experience of the Olympics] it. I want to win so I’m not going to be happy until we win a game. Yeah, it’s been great, super blessed to have a lot of my family and friends be able to come. So you know we’re just going to keep fighting for all the people that have supported us and we’re going to take it one game at a time," she said.
Team USA takes on Spain at 12:30 p.m. PT Thursday. You can watch it on E! or streaming on NBCOlympics.com.
The top six teams out of nine in pool play advance to the next round, the U.S. will next play France and Canada on Friday to keep pushing to advance out of its pool.
