Paris, France (Sept. 3, 2024) – Having seen his team’s lead cut from twelve to five in the first four minutes of the second quarter, Team USA head coach Robb Taylor called timeout.

Coming out of the break, he inserted one of his stars, Brian Bell back into the game. He immediately made a play.

Receiving the ball after some off-ball screening action with John Boie in the mid-post, Bell dragged two defenders with him. As Boie made his break to the basket, Bell quickly passed him the ball, creating a wide open layup before the help could arrive.

“I wish I could say I drew that play up specifically for JB,” Taylor said.

Boie hadn’t even taken a shot in the 13-plus minutes leading up to that basket, but it was one of many moments in the first half in which Team USA responded to a push from France. The U.S. offered enough resilience when necessary, and eventually, the talent gap showed up on the scoreboard. The two-time defending gold medalists came out on top 82-47.

Bell, Steve Serio, and Jake Williams have long been the three-headed ball handling, passing, and scoring monster driving Team USA, but without Boie and Trevon Jenifer doing the dirty work off the ball, the success would be much harder to come by.

“Everybody’s got a role, right?,” Jenifer said. “I’ve got three great shooters sitting behind me, they’re some of the world’s best. If I have the honor to be able to screen for some of these guys… keeping them protected…. and they make their shots, I’m doing my job.”

A few minutes later, he scored an important basket of his own. France once again punched back, cutting the lead to three, but Williams found Jenifer inside, and he converted the layup.

Williams took over the game from that juncture. He scored the next seven points, and then patiently waited for Bell to make his cut before delivering an assist around the defender.

The run forced a France timeout, and served as the decisive blow that it could not recover from. For the final 22 minutes of the game, the margin never dipped back into single figures.

From the very start of the game, Team USA was not phased by the boisterous French crowd. Within the first 70 seconds, the score was 6-0, and France had to talk it over.

“Our starting five has been there before,” Taylor said. “A number of them have been around for a couple of Paralympics so they know how to handle crowd size. Those are the guys that we lean on when we need to… and they set the tone for us early.”

Jenifer, who is appearing in his fourth Paralympic Games, will never get tired of seeing the masses flock into the arena.

“You get out there and our national anthem just got over,” he explained. “Then you hear (the French fans) signing their national anthem. It gets you rocking and rolling.”

The U.S. absorbed the energy from the crowd and put it back onto the court in the form of full court press. In the aforementioned second quarter timeout, Taylor was adamant about getting back into the press that had helped build the lead out. Overwhelmed by Team USA’s aggressive pace and physicality, France lost the turnover and rebound battle, struggling to create extra possessions when it really needed them.

“They’re not ready for the speed that we can bring,” Taylor declared. “It’s probably not something that they can practice. So when they see us coming up in a press Steve, Tre (Jenifer), Jake, Brian, (Boie), it’s a formidable five to try to beat.”

Williams led the way with 23 points and ten assists, while Serio and Bell dished out seven assists of their own. In total, Team USA notched a remarkable 34 assists with just one turnover.

A matchup with rival Canada looms in the semifinal on Thursday.