Additional Quotes: USA U16 women's National Team 72, USA 63
USA head coach Dori Oldaker (Mt. Lebanon H.S., Pa.)
On the game:
Brazil, obviously, played really, really well. I thought our kids played their tail ends off to get us back in the game. At one point, we were down 22 and we cut it to six. So, I’m proud of them for fighting through that big deficit.
You find out who you are, and they are going to find out who they are as well.
On playing for a bronze medal:
That is one of the things we talked about in the locker room. How do they handle a loss? It’s no fun to lose, but how do you handle it?
Destiny Littleton (The Bishop’s School/San Diego, Calif.)
On the game:
I felt like we came out with not as much energy as last night. I feel like we felt that we had it. It showed. We got down quick. But I’m proud of my team; we fought back.
On playing for a bronze medal:
We are ready to fight back. We are not going to put our heads down over this. Losses happen, obviously. We don’t want to lose. Redemption is tomorrow. Winning a bronze is obviously not as good as a gold, but we are going to fight for it.
Lauryn Miller (Kirkwood H.S./Kirkwood, Mo.)
On the game:
I think definitely Brazil came from the beginning showing that they wanted that championship game. They never gave up. They never let up. With that 22-point lead, they never stopped working.
On the USA’s comeback attempt:
A lot of us had a lot of heart, because we could have just given up. We closed the gap to six points, but just couldn’t seal the deal, but it still showed a lot of heart.
On playing for a bronze medal:
Now since we can’t have the gold, we got to definitely come home with something to show for what we’ve done here.
Alexis Morris (Legacy Christian Academy/Beaumont, Texas)
On the game:
I feel like we fought hard to get back in the game. We were down by 22. We came back, and we played hard as a team. We came up short, but hard as a team.
On playing for a bronze medal:
We definitely are going to regroup, and we are going to come back and fight for the bronze medal.