The U.S. defeated China, 21-13, Saturday in a women’s 3×3 play-in game at the Paris Olympics, with Los Angeles Sparks forward Dearica Hamby scoring a game-high 9 points.
The victory at a temporary facility at Place de la Concorde advanced the Americans into a semifinal Monday at 8:30 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time against Spain, which lost to the U.S. 17-11, in a pool play game Thursday.
3×3 is played with a 12-second shot clock on a half court. Baskets inside the arc and free throws are worth one point and baskets made from outside the arc are worth two points.
The winner is the first team to score 21 points, or the leading team at the end of the 10-minute game clock.
In the play-in game, Hamby’s back-to-back 2-point baskets began a 6-1 run that broke a 5-5 tie and gave the Americans the lead for good.
Hamby ended the game with a 2-point basket with 5 seconds to play.
Atlanta Dream guard Rhyne Howard and forward Cierra Burdick, who played for six WNBA teams between 2015 and 2021 and in Spain, each added 5 for the U.S., and Texas Christian guard Hailey Van Lith 2.
Chen Minglin and Wan Jiyuan led China with 4 each.
“We got two more games that are more important, but we keep getting better each game,” Hamby said following the Americans’ fifth consecutive victory after beginning play with three losses. “This might’ve been our best offensive performance in terms of fluidity.”
The U.S. defeated China, 14-12, earlier Saturday to conclude pool play with Van Lith scoring 6 points and Hamby 4.
The U.S. finished third in pool play with a 4-3 record.
The 6-foot-3-inch, 30-year-old Hamby was selected as a replacement for her Sparks’ teammate Cameron Brink, who suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee June 18 in a 79-70 loss to the Connecticut Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut, that will cause her to miss the Olympics and the rest of the WNBA season.
USA Basketball was required to choose a replacement among the top 50 Americans in the FIBA 3×3 rankings or have the minimum number of ranking points. Hamby’s playing for the Sparks had no connection to her selection as Brink’s replacement, Justin Trujillo, USA Basketball’s communications manager, told City News Service.
Hamby is in her ninth season in the WNBA and second with the Sparks. The former Wake Forest standout was the sixth overall selection in the 2015 WNBA draft by the San Antonio Stars. The team moved to Las Vegas before the start of the 2018 season.
Hamby was the league’s Sixth Woman of the Year in 2019 and 2020 and a WNBA all-star in 2021 and 2022, helping the Aces to the WNBA championship the latter year.