Bench of Lawson, Catchings, Parker plenty for U.S.

Photo by Eric Gay

Former University of Tennessee guard Kara Lawson, left, of the U.S. stretches high to snare a rebound as South Korea guard Choi Younah can only watch Tuesday. Lawson scored 11 points, making three 3-pointers, as the Americans won 104-60 in Beijing.

BEIJING — The basketball-crazy Chinese crowd is fond of doing the wave. The only waves Korea was feeling Tuesday night at the Summer Olympics were coming off the United States bench.

The U.S. team’s depth has made things miserable for any of the six opponents who have tried to deal with it. None has succeeded.

The Americans put Korea on that list with a 104-60 victory. Sylvia Fowles, a former SEC Player of the Year back home but a reserve here, scoring 26 points.

The win moves the U.S. into a game against Russia on Thursday night with the winner going to the gold medal game.

“Depth is one our biggest advantage in this tournament,” said former University of Tennessee guard Kara Lawson, who had 11 points including three 3-pointers on 4-of-5 shooting. “Look at the players we can bring off the bench. I’m mean it’s crazy. (Tamika) Catching, Seimone (Augustus), Fowles and (Candace) Parker, You’re kidding me. So we feel like we can bring our second wave of players and third wave of players.”

Korea can be a hot-shooting team when left alone, but the U.S. can afford to be an absolute pest at guard with such players as Katie Smith, Sue Bird, Cappie Pondexter and Lawson running in and out like a revolving door – each bringing a little more tenacity to a pressing, trapping backcourt.

Get past that early pressure and ball-hawkers like Catchings and Diana Taurasi are there waiting.

“A lot of times when the reserves come in, that is when the game breaks open,” Lawson said. “It’s not always because the first five isn’t doing a great job. It’s because that’s when the fatigue sets in for the other team.”

It seemed almost criminal to bring Fowles in against the undersized Koreans after they’d already had to deal with Leslie and Parker.

“I call her ‘The Beast,’ ” Catchings said. “She comes in there with three or four people around her and just reaches up, grabs the ball and puts it in.

“We talked about the depth of this team from the beginning,” Catchings added. “It’s like our starting five is in the playing with energy and then (when subs come in) it never goes away. In fact, it picks up.”

It certainly did Tuesday when Parker and Lawson came off the bench. Parker almost immediately hit all of her 8 points on 3-of-5 shooting. Lawson hit a 3-pointer to put the lead at 21-19 and the U.S. never again trailed.

Fowles said the wealth of talent isn’t an accident.

“They did a very good job of picking the 12 players that they did,” Fowles said. “When you can call anybody off the bench and they come bring it in for you I think it’s great. It’s up to us to utilize our depth well.”

The depth will also help as medal play continues and teams face their seventh games in 14 days.

“We don’t have anybody concerned about minutes,” said Catchings, who had six points on 3-for-3 shooting and five rebounds. “We don’t have to have anybody worn out by playing 25 or 30 minutes. The coaches get every ounce from everybody and we are not going to overuse anybody.”

So, next comes the semifinals Thursday night and a game against Russia, a team with its own stable of talented players and WNBA standout Becky Hammon to boot. Russia trailed for much of the game against Spain on Tuesday before rallying in the fourth quarter for a 84-65 victory.

“They are super talented,” Lawson said. “The scary thing about them is that they have players with tremendous ability. Their front line is something to contend with.”

The Russians will be contending with a U.S. team of 12 all-stars with gold on their minds.