The U.S. Women defeated Croation in a blowout 81-56 in the first game of Olympic matchups. Team USA received strong games from Tina Charles, who finished with 14 points and Angel McCoughtry, who had 13 of her own.
Do not be fooled by the score though, this game was close for most of it. In fact, with seconds left in the third quarter, Croatia missed a three that would have cut the U.S. lead to one point heading into the fourth quarter, but they could not bank in on the opportunity.
The US Team ran away with the game in the fourth, capitalizing on Croatia's sloppy ball handling. They build a double-digit lead before the 8-minute mark as they blew the game open 62-49.
Team USA apparently left their fire power for the end. The beginning of the game really dragged for both teams.
It was a slow and sloppy start n the first quarter. The US led 11-4 after the first. The second quarter saw a little more action as both nations picked it up in the second quarter and Croatia outscored the U.S. Team 24-20.
At the half, USA led 31-28. They shot close to 39 percent from the floor including 2/5 from three.
Tina Charles and Diana Tauriasi led the way with eight points and six points at the half.
Croatia's strength came from beyond the arc as they scored more than half of their points from three. They went 5/15 from beyond the arc. They were not so good from everywhere else as they shot less than 30 percent at the half.
The game high belonged to Croatia's Jelena Ivezic who scored 22 points. Marija Vrsaljko helped out and scored 19 points. The rest of the Croatian team only had 15 points combined.
US will wait for Monday to play Angola. Croatia will play China.
