Less than 24 hours after Steph cooked, forcing the French men’s basketball team to settle for silver, the women had a chance to exact revenge.
Few thought they could as they were 15.5-point underdogs entering tip-off against a mighty United States team who’d won gold in seven-straight games dating back to 1992 in Barcelona. They’d also won 60 straight Olympic games with 58 of them by double digits.
However, it was France that led by double-digits in the third quarter in Sunday's gold medal game. They gave the Americans all they could handle, but in the end, came up just short — and only because Gabby Williams’s foot was just inside the 3-point line on what would have been a buzzer-beating game-tying bucket to send the game to overtime.
Instead, the United States escaped with a 67-66 win and an eighth straight gold medal while France settled for silver for the second consecutive day.
Kelsey Plum sparked the US after they fell behind by 10 early in the third quarter. She hit a pair of threes and assisted on an A’ja Wilson layup to make it a two-point game and spark the comeback. She also hit several clutch free throws down the stretch along Kahleah Copper to secure the win. Plum and Copper finished with 12 points while Wilson led the way with 21 points, 13 boards and four blocks.
While a French win might not have been equal to the United States’ “Do you believe in miracles?” men’s hockey win over the Soviet Union in 1980, it certainly would rank among one of the biggest upsets in Olympic team sports history. Team USA was a massive -1800 favorite to win gold heading into the tournament and were -1450 on the moneyline Sunday while France was +850.
