US women’s hoops team beats ZVVC UKA Prague 100-81

EKATERINBURG, Russia — Angel McCoughtry scored 17 points to lead five players in double figures and the U.S. women’s basketball national team beat ZVVC UKA Prague 100-81 in the opening game of the Ekaterinburg tournament Friday night.

McCoughtry was 7 for 8 from the field and added nine rebounds and three blocks. Sylvia Fowles had 14 points and seven boards. Ashja Jones and Tina Charles each added 13 points and Shameka Christon had 10.

Evanthia Maltsi scored 26 points to lead ZVVC UKA Prague.

With the game tied 8-8, Candace Parker scored eight points during a 14-0 run that gave the Americans a 22-8 lead. They led 24-10 starting the second quarter before Parker injured her left shoulder and left the game.

“I just went up for a rebound and came down and it kind of popped out,” Parker said. “Right now it’s feeling good, but we’ll go back (to the hotel) and do treatment and reevaluate from there. It’s happened numerous times before.”

The Czech team rallied behind Maltsi. Her 3-pointer cut the deficit to three at 34-31 with 4:15 left in the first half before Fowles led an 8-0 run to push the lead back to double digits.

Maltsi’s halfcourt shot at the buzzer cut the lead to 42-34 at the half.

McCoughtry scored the first nine points of the second half, hitting two 3-pointers.

“Like I told the players, we didn’t know anything about each other going into the game, we didn’t know anything about the other team going into the game; so it was a real learning experience for all of us,” U.S. coach Geno Auriemma said. “I thought we played pretty well offensively. Not having Candace (Parker) the last 30 minutes of the game and we still put up 100 points is pretty good.”

The U.S. continues the round-robin tournament against Euroleasing Sopron on Saturday and caps the tournament against host and 2009 EuroLeague third-place finisher UMMC Ekaterinburg on Sunday.