July 6, 1999
CALVIA, Spain – Notre Dame junior center Ruth Riley (Macy, Ind.) scored 16 points and grabbed nine rebounds in 21 minutes of action to help the 1999 USA Women’s World University Games Team crush South Africa 140-32 to clinch a spot in the medal round quarterfinals at the World University Games Tuesday night in Calvia, Spain.
The USA’s 140 point effort established a new national single game World University Games scoring record and broke the previous record of 135 points, set in 1991 against Romania.
The United States again saw a balanced effort as all eleven players scored, including eight in double figures. Kelly Miller (Georgia/Rochester, Minn.) paced the attack with 24 points and Katie Douglas (Purdue/Indianapolis, Ind.) tallied 22. Riley nearly notched a double-double as she complemented her 16 points with a game high nine boards. Douglas dished off a game high six assists.
The United States never trailed in the contest, opening with an offensive scoring frenzy that was spurred by its defense and at 10:34, the Americans were in complete control, 31-5. During that span, the USA’s defense limited South Africa to 25.0 percent (2-8 FGs) shooting from the floor and forced its opponents into 12 turnovers, while at the same time shooting 60.0 percent (12-20 FGs) from the field and notching 10 steals. The U.S. kept up the pace through the rest of the half and retired to the locker room with a win virtually guarenteed, 67-11.
Cruising through the second half, the United States closed in on the all-time scoring record. With 27 seconds remaining in the game, and the score at 134-32, Miller made the second of her two attempts from the charity stripe to tie the record with 135 points. On South Africa’s next possession, Helen Darling (Penn State/Columbus, Ohio) grabbed an errant pass and tossed the ball to LaQuanda Barksdale (North Carolina/Winston-Salem, N.C.) who made a lay-up with 19.4 seconds showing to break the record. Putting the icing on the cake was Ayana Walker (Louisiana Tech/Houston, Tex.). After Darling intercepted another pass, she sent the ball to Walker who sent in a buzzer-beater from beyond midcourt to end the game 140-32.
The United States (2-0) faces Ukraine (2-0) on Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. (11:00 a.m. CDT) to determine first and second place finishers from preliminary Group B.