Former Lady Tigers prep for Olympics

BATON ROUGE — Former LSU women’s basketball standouts Seimone Augustus and Sylvia Fowles will be in action tonight as the USA Women’s National Team begins its exhibition slate in preparation for the Olympic Games in Rio. The USA National Team will face the USA Select Team at 9 p.m. in a game to be televised by NBA TV.
Today’s exhibition contest will be played at the Galen Center on Southern Cal’s campus. The National Team will have additional exhibition contests versus France (July 27), Canada (July 29) and Australia (July 31) before opening Olympic play on Aug. 7 against Senegal.
The first Olympic gold medalists in the history of LSU women’s basketball, Augustus and Fowles are making their third Olympic appearances. Both hold gold medals from the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2012 Olympic Games hosted in London. From coach Sue Gunter’s silver medal at the 1976 Games to coach Van Chancellor’s gold medal at the 2004 Olympics, LSU women’s basketball has been associated with six Olympic medals.
The United States (2014 FIBA World Championship gold medalist) was drawn into preliminary round group B along with Canada, Senegal (2015 FIBA Africa gold medalist), Serbia (2015 EuroBasket gold medalist) and China and Spain, two teams that earned their berths at the 2016 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
The U.S. will open play against Senegal on Aug. 7; followed by Spain on Aug. 8; Serbia on Aug. 10; Canada Aug. 12; and the USA concludes preliminary round play on Aug. 14 against China.
U.S. Olympic women’s basketball teams have earned a record seven gold medals, one silver medal and one bronze medal, and are 58-3 all-time in Olympic competition. The 2016 U.S. team will enter Rio riding a 41-game Olympic winning streak that dates back to the 1992 Barcelona Olympics bronze medal game.
Since the inception of the 1995-96 USA Basketball Women’s National Team program, the USA National Team, in addition to its record five-straight Olympic gold medals, has captured four FIBA World Championship gold medals, one FIBA World Championship bronze medal and one FIBA Americas Championship gold medal, while compiling a remarkable 86-1 record for a .989 winning percentage in those events. Further, USA National Teams in exhibition contests since 1995 boast of a 186-15 record.
All of the exhibition games will be carried by NBA TV, and also will be streamed live on the USA Basketball and NBA Facebook pages. USA Basketball’s TV schedule can be accessed online at www.usab.com/news-events/ news/2016/07/nba-tv-announcement.aspx
For information on the USA National Team’s Olympic schedule, www.usab.com/womens/national-team/olympic-schedule.aspx.
—Story provided by LSU Sports Information.