In a warm-up for the 2007 FIBA U-19 World Championship tournament in Slovakia (July 26-August 5), the US was down by two in at the half in the pre-tourney championship game, but an 18-2 run in the third quarter sealed the win over host Spain, 79-71.

No player played over 28 minutes, and you've got to believe Doug Bruno must enjoy coaching players like Maya Moore, Jasmine Thomas, Jantel Lavender and Vicki Baugh.

"This pre-competition tournament has been very useful for us because we have such a young group," said Bruno. "They needed to experience all the adversity we’ve dealt with, the tough travel and arriving just a few hours before our first game, before we travel to play in the world championship. Every single player on the team has done some good things, and now it is about finding consistency."

Down in Rio de Janeiro, the US Pan Am team whomped Argentina 85-54. Emily Fox (who some may remember as the super "speed-stacker") led all scorers with 18 points. Natasha Humphrey went 5-of-7, including 3-of-4 on three's, and Marissa Coleman added 12. A total of 48 fouls (including two technicals) were called. Said coach Dawn Staley of the game:

"Our team came over last night and watched them [Argentina] play against Cuba, so we saw the physicality of the game and we anticipated it," said USA head coach Dawn Staley. "But, it was a hard game to play in because there was a lot of grabbing and a lot of aggressive play. I thought our players did as much as they could to keep their composure and their poise and not really get into retaliating."

Next up, Cuba. Cuba, also 2-0 in the tournament, has won the gold medal at each of the last two Pan American Games and has seven players returning from its 2003 gold medal team.

As for the Senior team, you can catch them playing Australia at the Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, N.J. on September 16. "This is no ordinary team and no ordinary game," USA Basketball president Val Ackerman. "Fans will have the opportunity to truly see basketball played at the highest level."

Why there? Well, the arena has supported big-time women's basketball in the past, recently serving as host for the first- and second-round games in the 2006 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament. Of the eight regional sites for that year's tournament, the games in Trenton drew the largest crowds.

And it doesn't hurt that Ackerman was born in N.J. and honed her basketball skills at Hopewell Valley High School. Or that one of her assistant coaches at Virginia was Mike Ryan, current president of the Mercer County Sports and Entertainment Commission. Hey, it takes time, but women can rebuild the "old girls (-boys) network" lost when the AIAW was wiped out in '82.

Tickets are on sale at the SBA box office, by phone at (800) 298-4200, and online at www.comcastTIX.com.

Mel Greenberg's blog hints there may be a second chance to catch the team up at a Connecticut-based casino, and a UConn fan said Ticketmaster sent out an email about a Sept. 19th day, but they don't have tickets listed on their site. Yet.

Side note: USABasketball has a re-designed site. Not so fond of it. On the women's side, they (aka the fabulous media relations person Caroline Williams and her staff of few to none) always done a great job of producing features and game reports, but the current layout looks kinda....well...amateur-ish.