ATLANTA, July 30, 2012 Angel McCoughty helped the United States to its second straight victory while Erika de Souza led Brazil during a second consecutive loss as pool play continued for the Atlanta Dreams Olympians on Monday. McCoughtry and Team USA beat Angola, 90-38, while de Souza and Brazil dropped a 69-59 decision to Russia.
McCoughtry scored in double figures off the bench for the second game in a row for the United State squad, totaling 10 points in 18 minutes of action. She took just three shots, making two, but also went to the line eight times, sinking six. McCoughtry also added four rebounds, two assists and tied for the team lead with two steals. Team USA, which also includes Dream head coach Marynell Meadors who serves as an assistant coach, will next play Turkey, which is also 2-0, on Wednesday at 5:15 pm ET.
Meanwhile for Brazil, de Souza had her second straight stellar effort in a losing cause, scoring a team-high 15 points and grabbing a whopping 18 rebounds. She sank half of her 12 field goal attempts and three of five free throws while adding three blocked shots, a steal and an assist. Brazil, though, fell to 0-2 in pool play and will hope to keep its slim chances of advancing to the medal round alive when it plays Australia (1-1) on Wednesday.
Angel McCoughtry quotes (courtesy of USA Basketball) On the win over Angola: I thought it was a very well-played game by the girls. Everybody shared the ball well; everybody scored a lot of points. So I think it was a very good game by the girls. And congrats to Angola for playing a good game. I think we need to move on to the next game. We have a tough one Wednesday, so well go tomorrow and adjust; work on some things. Overall, we played a good game. We got a lot of assists; very poised. We have a tough game Wednesday, so we have to come out of the gate ready to play.
One tightening up the defense in the second half: We have to come out of the gate doing those things. We can't have people asking us about that every single game. We need to make sure that doesn't happened again.
On Wednesdays game: I think well look to make some adjustments and if we correct our mistakes it will go our way.