Former Hawkeyes shine on Olympic basketball stage
In terms of a stage, from an athletic perspective nothing exceeds the Olympic games. Two former Iowa basketball players shined on that stage on Sunday.
First there was an early morning game for Peter Jok. The former All Big Ten performer is playing in the Olympic games for South Sudan, his home country. The South Sudan squad put a huge scare in the United States team in an exhibition contest leading up to the Paris games, but they were still not expected to perform well.
But, on Sunday they did just that, posting a 90-79 victory over Puerto Rico. Jok came off the bench, playing 22 minutes and scoring 11 points, including 3-4 from beyond the arch. He also hauled down six rebounds in the contest.
The next game will be a challenging one for South Sudan. The United States gets another crack at them and they will certainly have the Americans full attention on Wednesday. The contest starts at 2:00 pm central and will air on the USA Network. South Sudan will need to beat the USA or Serbia to assure that they will advance to the quarterfinals of the tournament next week.
Then shortly after that contest concluded, the women’s tournament go underway with a match-up between Spain and China. Why is that game of interest to Iowa fans?
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Because the Spain roster includes former All American Megan Gustafson. She became a naturalized citizen to Spain, like many basketball players do that play overseas. That allowed her to become part of their roster for the Olympic games in Paris.
It’s a good thing for Spain that she is part of the team. She helped to lead a pretty furious comeback in the second half to send the game into overtime before prevailing over China, 90-89. Gustafson led the way with 29 points, on 14-21 shooting, and had 8 rebounds in the contest. She also mixed in four steals and a pair of blocks in the game.
Up next for Spain is a second pool play game against Puerto Rico on Wednesday. That game will start bright and early at 4:00 am central time and air on Peacock. Should Spain win that contest, they will lock up a spot in the women’s basketball quarterfinals starting next week.
