Paris 2024 Olympics: US Women's 3x3 basketball team fall to Germany in opening match
The United States women’s 3x3 basketball team got their title defence off to a shaky start, losing to Germany 13-17 in their opening game of pool play on Tuesday afternoon.
The Germans shot 40 per cent from the two-point range compared to the US who hit just one of their eight attempts from the outside range, in a testing first game for Cierra Burdick, Rhyne Howard, Hailey van Lith and late replacement Dearica Hamby.
Things initially started brightly for the reigning champions. Racing to a 5-0 lead, the US quartet looked firmly in control as they scooped in rebounds to suffocate Germany's offence.
That, however, soon shifted once the Germans found their joy from the 2-point range. The first successful strike from Svenja Brunckhorst, to take the score to 3-5, was followed shortly by another from Elisa Mevius to push the Germans ahead, 6-5.
With the Europeans in the ascendency the new-look US side, different in every way to the personnel that struck gold at Tokyo, started to look exposed.
Repeatedly muscled out of play as their oppositions piled on the defence, eyes darted between the US stars on the half-court as they were forced into mistakes and 1-on-1 plays.
Rhyne Howard of Team United States under pressure from Sonja Greinacher
At just over three minutes to go, the game sat locked at 11-11, with neither team able to break the deadlock. It took over a minute before a score was registered, and it was, once again, the Germans with a two-point shot to inch 11-13 ahead.
An exchange of one point for either side followed before Germany struck once more from the outside to go up 12-16 with 56 seconds left on the clock.
In the 3x3 format, the winner is either the first team to 21 points or the one with the lead after 10 minutes. After one last exchange of one-point shots, the game was decided: Germany were victorious.
It is a less than ideal start for the defending champions, but they will take solace knowing that the unit that won in Tokyo three years ago also dropped a game in pool play.
Van Lith, too, was a bright spark for the US. The youngest player on the roster finished with six points and three rebounds in 6:57 minutes of play.
They will now hunt their first win in their second game against Azerbaijan, tipping off Wednesday evening.
The US men, meanwhile, will begin their pursuit of gold at their first-ever Olympics later today in a rematch of the 2023 World Cup final against world number-one side Serbia.