PHOENIX — The U.S. national women’s basketball team finds itself in a familiar situation.
Ahead of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, a team made up of WNBA All-Stars handed Team USA an eight-point loss. Dallas Wings’ Arike Ogunbowale was named the 2021 MVP. Team WNBA again handed the national team an eight-point loss on Saturday, beating Team USA 117-109, ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics. Ogunbowale again was named the All-Star game MVP after scoring a record 34 points.
“It was a little bit déjà vu feeling,” said Breanna Stewart, who finished with a team-high 31 points, 10 rebounds and three assists.
Team USA has seen how this story ends before. The players went on to win gold at the Tokyo Olympics, the seventh in a row, after their All-Star weekend exhibition loss. So they are not alarmed.
“We are not going to press the panic button right now,” said A’ja Wilson, who had 22 points and six rebounds. “We needed the test.”
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Team USA head coach Cheryl Reeve said Team WNBA’s success over the national team just highlights the level of talent in the U.S.
“The depth of talent that we have in the USA, there’s no one who has anything close to it,” Reeve said. “There are players on this team that are great players. Everybody knows that. There’s no suggestion whatsoever that there are players on (Team) WNBA that aren’t good enough to play on the national team … But only 12 could make it.”
Reeve jokingly added: “Is Arike Ogunbowale playing for any of these teams we are going to play?”
Ogunbowale was held scoreless in the first half, before rattling off 34 points, the most ever scored in a WNBA All-Star game, passing the previous record set by Jewell Loyd (31) in 2023.
“Coach (Cheryl Miller) actually called me out in front of everyone at halftime,” Ogunbowale recalled. “I wasn’t expecting her to say my name. She was talking about the team and she pointed at me. (Miller) just told me to take a deep breath and play my game.”
Ogunbowale said the Olympic gear inspired her performance: “They are getting ready to play (at the Olympics) and they want to win, so we’re not going to get embarrassed as well. … I love competition. If I hear somebody is trying to beat me, I’m going to beat them twice as hard. That’s usually what happens when we play Team USA.“
Reeve said if her teammates take anything from this performance, it’s that they must improve their defensive effort.
“We just came out and played. We didn’t come out and really compete,” Reeve said. “We need more of a collective effort defensively. We had a lot of one-on-one. Little help. Little rim protection. We don’t want to give up 60 points in the paint … That to me was our greatest disappointment.”
Team USA will face Germany in London on Tuesday, the final exhibition match before the 2024 Paris Games. Team USA begins Olympic group play in France on July 29.
Follow Cydney Henderson on social media @CydHenderson