PARIS, France (Sept. 6, 2024) – After a 41-36 semifinal loss to China in Tokyo three years ago, there was a ceratin feeling of Deja-Vu in Bercy Arena for 2024’s women’s wheelchair basketball semifinal rematch. A defensively stingy Chinese team. Every bucket being a fight. It all felt very familiar.

This time though, despite fighting tooth and nail throughout, the U.S. would come away with a 50-47 victory, booking its finals ticket.

“We knew that it was going to be a battle whatever game we were playing,” said the USA’s 2nd leading scorer, Becca Murray. “It’s really emotional. We had the same group in Tokyo. As a group, getting over that Chinese hill was great for us.”

The Chinese pressed in the backcourt mostly off of its own missed shots. The strategy yielded strong results quickly. The USA’s first offensive position of the day, off a missed jumper from China, ended in an eight-second violation.

That was one of three eight-second violations by the United States in the half. Ball control was a constant issue for the U.S. in the first half, committing ten turnovers compared to just four from China.

“We started off a little rough with the turnovers. We knew they would press; they have been pressing everybody,” said Murray.

While ball control could have been much better in the opening 16 minutes, the USA’s shooting was to be envied. The U.S. shot a sparkling 50% in the opening two quarters. Much of the strategy when it came to breaking the press was fairly simple: huck it long and hope Rose Hollermann could get under it.

Hollermann was involved with 8 of 12 U.S. points in the first quarter, including three long jumpers, but it was China who led by two points at the end of the period.

The second quarter was much of the same; the teams went back and forth on buckets, and the U.S. continued to have issues with the press. Whenever the U.S. seemed to be on the brink of a lead, the turnover bug struck.

With the U.S. down just two points with a little under two minutes remaining and having rebounded a Chinese miss, Courtney Ryan was surrounded by defenders; her frantic long throw missed Hollermann and trickled out of bounds, eventually leading to another bucket for the Chinese, helping China cruise into the half up 26-23.

“It’s exhausting playing through a defense like that,” said Hollermann. “What we did was instead of focusing on offense, we focused on our defense. They might play hard and be super aggressive, but we can always try and get the ball back by doing the same thing.”

The aggressiveness often worked, as the Chinese offense often looked stagnant outside of ball handler Suiling Lin. Lin had a 15-point, 10-assist double double. She could have had plenty of more assists, but the Chinese shot just 37% from the field and missed a bunch of open looks.

In the third, the U.S. finally looked like it had figured out how to deal with the tough Chinese defense; instead of going for long passes against the pressure, the U.S. went to a more measured approach.

“We just needed to settle down, trust each other, and throw shorter passes instead of getting that long pass over,” said Murray.

Down five with less than four minutes left in the third, the U.S. did just that on the way to a 10-2 run and four-point lead heading into the fourth. The streak was capitalized by a sweet passing sequence that found Becca Murray wide open on the baseline. Murray hit the jumper and was fouled, giving the U.S. its first lead since the first quarter and extending it to two on the foul shot.

The final frame saw a slow start from both sides; just four points were scored in the first three minutes. China would regain the lead, 44-43, on a couple of free throws from Xuemei Zhang right after the 3:30 mark.

As it did all day, the U.S. had an answer, a 6-0 run fueled by more quick passing. With the clock heading below the minute mark, Becca Murray found Ixhelt Gonzalez on the right block. She immediately whipped the ball to the opposite side of the paint for a Hollermann finish at the rim that put the U.S. up by five.

This continued a complete 180 for Hollermann, who started the day as a jump shooter and ended it fighitng for buckets in and around the painted area.

“I’m just reading the defense and taking what they are giving to me. At the beginning of the game, they weren’t jumping me; they were letting me shoot from behind,” remarked Hollermann. “As the game went on and I hit a couple, they started jumping, and I had to go to the basket.”

A late desperation three made things more interesting than any U.S. fan would have liked, but the United States secured the 50-47 win once a Chinese full court heave fell flat.

For the U.S., the journey continues into the gold medal match, its first gold medal match since back in Rio 2016 when it beat Germany. The U.S. will take on the winner of Canada and the Netherlands on the final day of the games, Sunday, at 1:30 p.m. French time.