Women's basketball forward Peppi Browne and her United States teammates wrapped up a five-game sweep yesterday at the Jones Cup in Taipei, Taiwan. With a 55-28 win over Senegal, the U.S. took the gold medal.
Browne, a junior, scored a team-high nine points in the 27-point win.
"We came here and accomplished what we wanted to and that was to win the Jones Cup," U.S. head coach Nell Fortner said. "It was a great team effort all week long and I'm very proud of how each and every one of these players performed.
"Defense was the key to this team's success. Our physical and aggressive style proved to be overpowering to the competition."
Browne's performance yesterday, which also included seven rebounds in 22 minutes, was easily her best of the tournament. She averaged four points and 3.4 rebounds per game during the five wins. Semeka Randall was the only player to average in double figures in scoring with just over 10 points a contest.
Randall scored four points early on as the U.S. jumped to a quick 14-0 lead against Senegal and posted a 29-10 advantage at halftime. The game followed a fairly similar script to the other four wins. With the exception of an opening-game 62-55 win over Chinese Taipei, who finished in second place at 4-1, the U.S. beat Thailand and South Korea by 27 and crushed Japan 68-26.
For the tournament, the U.S. squad limited its opponents to less than 40 points a game and just under 32-percent shooting from the field. It also outrebounded the opposition by 15.8 boards.
In 19 appearances in the R. Williams Jones Cup, the U.S. is now 110-22 overall with 15 medals, including eight gold. It won the silver in 1997 and the gold two years ago, when it finished with an unblemished 9-0 record.
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