PARIS, France — The U.S. women’s 3x3 team won the Olympic bronze medal after beating Canada 16-13 on Monday.
The team automatically advanced to the bronze medal game after a loss to Spain 18-16 in the semifinals.
Team member and Butler High School alum Cierra Burdick scored three points and had three rebounds during the bronze medal game. Wake Forest University Dearica Hamby scored three points and had six rebounds.
In the tournament, Germany took gold and Spain took silver.
There was some concern when the U.S. team dropped its first three games in the Paris Olympics, and just not with the players.
“USA basketball is not used to losing,” Burdick said. “So, when you lose three in a row, it’s like everybody is kind of shocked and everybody’s rooting against us.”
But Burdick and teammates Dearica Hamby, Rhyne Howard and Hailey Van Lith stayed focused after the terrible start that included losses to Germany, Azerbaijan and Australia. They remained calm and reeled off five consecutive wins to earn a spot in Monday’s semifinals against Spain.
“We wouldn’t change a single thing that happened,” Hamby said. “We needed those three losses to kind of wake us up and see that although we may be more talented, we’ve got to figure out a way to dig deep and pull out wins and compete. This game doesn’t allow a lot of room for error and we’re finding chemistry so we’re happy."
The team managed to win 14-12 to advance forward in the games.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.