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College basketball star Hailey Van Lith had a performance to be proud of in the Olympics’ 3×3 tournament on Monday, but it wasn’t enough as Team USA fell to Spain in the semi-finals.
Spain ended up defeating the United States in overtime 18-16 behind 9 points, including the game-winning free throws and Spain’s final four points, from Sandra Ygueravide (pictured above mugging Van Lith).
Now the American 3×3 women’s team will have to settle for competing for the bronze medal against Canada who lost to Germany in the other semi-final game.
After the game, Hailey Van Lith, who had struggled in previous games, but scored eight points on Monday, complained that the game was all but rigged by the officiating.
“This was 1,000 percent BS,” she said. “Those refs wanted the U.S. to lose. They were flopping left and right. They are not that good. Great job ladies. We know who should have won.”
On Monday’s Pat McAfee Show, NBA insider Brian Windhorst said, “FIBA doesn’t really want the USA to do good at three on three basketball. They really want that to be for countries that can’t field 5-on-5 teams.
“So they do all these things, like they have all these different layers and layers of things you have to do to qualify. I don’t just mean the team. I’m talking about no, like, Kyrie [Irving] can’t just show up and play. The only way you can play is if you play in like 15 qualifying events. It’s not 15, I’m just coming up with that number.”
Windhorst continued, “They don’t want guys from America.”
He then added that 3×3 was something Caitlin Clark could have done since she wasn’t named to the USA women’s basketball team for the Olympics, but “there was like 15 hoops that she would have had to jump through. Because FIBA doesn’t care about ratings, they just care about, like, growing the game elsewhere outside the U.S. so it’s not their priority.”