Rhyne Howard comes up clutch in overtime, hitting the winning shot to give Team USA an 18-17 victory over Canada.
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PARIS (AP) — Hailey Van Lith delivered a message after the defending champion U.S. posted its third straight win with an overtime victory against Canada in women’s 3×3 basketball pool play at the Paris Olympics following three straight losses to start the tournament.
“We have a lot of tweets bookmarked on how we shouldn’t come back to the States,” she said. “So we haven’t forgotten.”
Rhyne Howard’s 2-point shot in overtime lifted the U.S. to an 18-17 win over Canada after the Americans beat France 14-13 earlier Friday.
RHYNE HOWARD CALLS GAME! Make it three wins in a row for the 🇺🇸 #3x3WNT! pic.twitter.com/jkCR7frbBP
— USA Basketball 3×3 (@usab3x3) August 2, 2024
Van Lith made a 2-point shot with 22 seconds left to tie it at 16 and force overtime, where the first team to score two points wins.
Canada scored first in OT on a short shot by Katherine Plouffe. Howard, who was 0-for-5 from long range in regulation, then drained the winning basket.
“After that third loss we had a heart-to-heart as a team and we were like ‘we didn’t come this far to lose,’” Dearica Hamby said. “We weren’t the favorites so to say but we’re still USA basketball and gold is the standard.”
Hamby made a layup with four seconds remaining in the victory over France.
The U.S. was up by three after a basket by Howard with just more than a minute to go. France got a layup from Myriam Djekoundade before Marie Eve Paget’s 2-pointer tied it with 20 seconds remaining.
Van Lith then missed a shot, but the team got the ball back to set up the game-winner.
Laetitia Guapo had a chance to give France the win at the buzzer, but her 2-pointer was short.
Hamby, Cierra Burdick and Van Lith had four points each. Burdick also grabbed seven rebounds.
France got five points from Guapo.
