Australia embarrassed at women's basketball world

Australian women's basketball team coach Carrie Graf on Thursday admitted her team were embarrassed, and made to look "like little girls" in the first half of their 83-75 loss to the United States at the world championship in the Czech Republic.

The teams tipped to meet again in the final. The Americans totally outclassed Australia up until halftime, producing an 18-0 run bridging the first and second quarters to steamroll to a commanding 51-33 lead at the main break.

According to Australia Associated Press (AAP), Australian women' s basketball team, Opals, fought back well to win the second half 42-32 and give themselves some badly-needed confidence if they are to run into the U.S. again.

The Australians now face a quarterfinal clash with the Czech Republic on Friday, while the Americans topped the group to earn a more comfortable knock-out clash with South Korea.

"I don't think I swore (at half-time), but we were embarrassing on the glass, that was the bottom line," Graf told AAP.

"It was like little girls playing ladies. We were disastrous on the glass and that sets the tone for the game. We got out-muscled off everything and it was un-Australian to do that.

"Credit to our team we adjusted to the physical nature of the game and raised our intensity, but you can't let great teams get out to huge leads like that."

U.S. coach Geno Auriemma was surprised by the ease of the first half game against Australia.

"The first quarter especially," Auriemma told AAP. "I thought we came out and played great and did some really good things offensively and defensively and played with a lot of confidence.

"I thought the second half was more like what I thought the whole game would be like."

Source: Xinhua