They remained hidden for a full 35 minutes behind the closed door of their locker room, struggling with their harsh new reality.
They had arrived at these Olympics as the finest women`s basketball team in the world, had been heralded during these Olympics as a certain bet for a gold medal. But now, shockingly, they had been ripped down from their pedestal.
They had been ripped down on this Wednesday by the Unified Team in a 79-73 semifinal upset, and now the women on the U.S. team were dealing with emotions none had expected to confront.
”We`re not shocked. We`re hurt,” guard Teresa Weatherspoon would eventually say. ”This will be a scar, a deep scar, that will be with us the rest of our lives.”
”I can`t describe how I feel. I don`t feel anything,” said guard Cynthia Cooper. ”There`s not words to explain how one feels after a loss like this.”
”Maybe I`ll wake up in the morning and realize we lost,” said forward Clarissa Davis. ”The fact that it happened is what`s so amazing.”
What happened, in fact, was an eerie encore to what struck down the U.S. men four years ago in Seoul, where they were upset by the Soviet Union in the semifinals. That team, like the women`s team here, was built around a pressure defense that ignited its offense, and both collapsed when that pressure failed it, when that pressure was handled easily by its opponent.
Alexander Gomelsky was the Soviet coach in Seoul, and Tuesday he met for an hour with his brother Evgueni, the coach of the Unified women here. Together they plotted an attack on the U.S. press, and when it was unfurled 24 hours later, it was a copy of the strategy that had worked so well four years earlier.
”Positively. Yes,” Evgueni Gomelsky said. ”You have to understand, we are all here together. Yesterday, the two Gomelsky brothers have some kind of council.”
”I think the American girls a little nervous. Not so good coaching,”
said Alexander Gomelsky. ”But I teach my brother (who is 10 years younger)
many years. He`s a good coach now.”
The Unified players also operated the brothers` plan to perfection, and offered a textbook illustration on how to break the press. They threw over it to center Natalia Zassoulskaia, who was stationed near midcourt, and then she fed it to one of her guards, who were streaking toward the basket for layups or short jump shots.
That was the portrait all through the first half, but never did U.S. coach Theresa Grentz abandon pressure, never did she retreat and pull her players back. They were being dissected on one end, were floundering on the other against the Unified`s active zone.
Theresa Edwards, their star, was in the midst of a terrible game, and she would end with but 11 points on 4-of-13 shooting. Katrina McClain, their inside force, was missing layups and bunnies, and she would end with but 10 points on 4-of-12 shooting. As a team, the U.S. was on its way to shooting but 35.8 percent, and when the end of the first half finally arrived, the Americans were behind 47-41.
”Great players, yes. But team game, no,” Evgueni Gomelsky said of the U.S. team. ”Only fast break. Only pressing. But to the defense we use, problems, problems, problems. Their tactics no good, in my opinion.”
”They broke our press too often and we stayed in it too long,” said U.S. forward Medina Dixon, who ended with a team-high 12 points.
Only in the second half did the U.S. drop its press, but still the Unified Team shredded its defense, eventually leading 54-43 with 16 minutes 15 seconds remaining. Here the Americans finally responded, finally attacked in full cry and with full fervor, and a fast-break layup by center Tammy Jackson started them back.
They would tie it at 55 and again at 57, 59, 61, 63, 65 and 67. Unified went up six, but McConnell sliced that in half with a three at 2:39. Unified then went up five, but Davis made it three again with an offensive rebound at 1:09. McConnell stripped the ball from Svetlana Zaboloueva and fed Davis, but Davis missed a layup under pressure and with two Unified bodies on her.
”This is a big surprise,” said Edwards. ”In our minds, we`re still the best team in the world. It`s hard to swallow when all that talent goes to waste.”
”It just didn`t happen,” added Grentz. ”We didn`t take the fairy tale to its end.”
”We may get the bronze medal now,” concluded Dixon. ”But I don`t think I`ll even carry it home.”
