Former FGCU pitcher Casey Coleman goes for gold at Pan Am Games

Cuba responded with a 5-0 run, however, and led 62-61 with 1:36 on the clock. South Carolina’s Alaina Coates added 10 points and 15 rebounds, while Jefferson had 12 points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals.

Tamayo, who lives and trains in Asheville, is now preparing to earn a spot on the U.S. Team for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Puerto Rico countered with its first 3 of the game, and at the TV timeout at 4:07, the US led 15-9. “I just thought she was terrific on the boards for us”.

“The bench came in, and they gave us a lot of energy”, said Courtney Williams (Texas A&M/Houston, Texas). I can’t say enough good things about the way that Linnae played today.

“All I could really think about was my teammates”, Harper said of going to the line. Breanna Stewart of UConn contributed 16 points in 18 minutes.

“It’s been really fun playing here”, Hildebrand said.

Coates and Stewart scored the USA’s first 14 points of the second quarter, but 10 points from Puerto Rico’s Carla Cortijo Sanchez, who finished the game with 24 points and five assists, helped prevent the U.S. from pulling away.

Reliever Yennier Cano got the win for the Cuban team. The lead ballooned to 11 at the half at 37-26 following a three-point field goal from Leidys Oquendo with just over a minute remaining in the second quarter.

“I think we battled, I think we grinded it out”, Jefferson said. “Once we really hit crunch time, we were able to settle down like we did with Puerto Rico last night”.

Earlier, the United States, whose team has Western Kentucky head coach Michelle Clark-Heard on its staff, erased a 14-point deficit in the third quarter, then made it a back-and-forth game from there.

Back-to-back ninth inning home runs off the bats of Yorbis Borroto and Jose Garcia lifted Cuba to a 7-6 walk-off win over Puerto Rico in the bronze medal contest on Sunday. She added four steals.

“One of the key quotes in basketball is, ‘Defense wins games, ‘” Walker-Kimbrough said. “Sometimes you get a big lead like that, and I think it is hard to keep your focus”. It is Clark-Heard’s first global coaching experience.