McCray's 15 Points Lead Team USA To 81-66 Win Over Australia In World University Games Semifinal Action

July 9, 2009

BELGRADE, Serbia –

Box Score in PDF Format

Kansas senior All-American Danielle McCray helped advance the 2009 USA Women’s World University Games Team (6-0) to the gold medal game with a team-high 15 points and five rebounds in Team USA’s 81-66 win over Australia on Thursday evening in Belgrade, Serbia.

“This is what we have been working for all along,” said McCray, an Olathe, Kan., native. “We have wanted our shot at winning the gold and now it’s here. If we work hard and play our game, I think we have a great shot of coming home as the champions.”

McCray knocked down 7-of-14 shots from the field and also made her lone free throw attempt in her 20 minutes of play. In addition, she recorded one assist and one steal for Team USA.

Down 13-9 with 4:53 remaining in the first quarter, the USA launched a 25-0 run that established an insurmountable U.S. lead and helped propel the USA past Australia (4-2) in the semifinal round of play.

The USA advances undefeated to the 2009 World University Games gold medal game, where it will meet the winner of also unbeaten Russia (6-0) and Czech Republic (4-2) at 3:00 p.m. (8:00 a.m. CDT) on Saturday, July 11 at Belgrade Arena. The loser of the Russia versus Czech Republic game will face Australia in the bronze medal contest at 12:30 p.m. (5:30 a.m. CDT).

“I think we came out, got a little run and then we let up,” said USA and Arizona State University head coach Charli Turner Thorne. “As a coach I don’t understand that. We always want everybody to go out and work hard every possession. You have to credit Australia. They’re a tough, physical team. They play hard every possession. Our team can learn from that. We take possessions off and every time we took a possession off in the second half, they capitalized.”

In addition to McCray, the red, white and blue had three other players in double figures as Tina Charles (Connecticut / Jamaica, N.Y.) tallied a 12-point and 10-rebound double-double; while Danielle Robinson (Oklahoma / San Jose, Calif.), who dished out a game-high four assists, and Alexis Gray-Lawson (California / Oakland, Calif.), who shot 4-of-5 from the field and grabbed five rebounds, each contributed 10 points.