USA women’s basketball 3-on-3 team, with Wake Forest’s Dearica Hamby, wins Olympic bronze

On Monday night in Paris, the U.S. women’s 3x3 basketball team clinched a bronze medal with a 16-13 win over Canada.

For Team USA, it came down to late free throws by Wake Forest University alum Dearica Hamby to seal their place on the podium.

Earlier on Monday, the U.S. faced Spain in the semifinal match. Though it was close, the U.S. ended up losing, 18-16, in overtime, which ended their five-game winning streak and their Cinderella comeback.

“After we lost this morning and had our gold dream crushed, we were down,” guard Hailey Van Lith said. “We were kind of feeling sorry for ourselves. It took a lot of mental toughness just to compete in this game.”

Despite not being able to defend their gold medal title from the 2020 Olympics, Team USA came out hot in their match-up against Spain. The majority of the game was back-and-forth with no major lead.

Canada racked up eight fouls throughout the game and gave the U.S. a unique opportunity to pull ahead. A technical foul against Canada helped Team USA get back into the game and an and-one from Hamby put USA up 14-13 with just over a minute remaining.

In the bronze medal match-up, Hamby had six rebounds and three points. In previous games, Hamby was particularly instrumental on the defensive end, averaging 4.4 rebounds per game.

With USA clinging to a 15-13 lead in the final seconds, an offensive rebound from Charlotte native and Butler High School graduate Cierra Burdick with seven seconds remaining sealed the victory. Hamby’s efforts were assisted by teammates Rhyne Howard to secure back-to-back medals in 3x3 for the U.S.

“Even beating Canada for this bronze medal is a big win for us,” Van Lith said. “The USA is new to 3x3 so we are hoping to grow the game and next time get the gold.”

This story was originally published August 6, 2024 at 7:54 PM.