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Wednesday, March 1 Updated: March 5, 5:50 PM ET U.S. team to play Hungarian squad in exhibition ESPN.com news services |
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The USA Basketball women's senior national team will play Hungarian professional club team MiZo-PVSK in an exhibition game on March 30 at the NCAA Women's Final Four in Philadelphia. The game, presented by the Philadelphia 76ers and Comcast-Spectacor, will be played at 7 p.m. ET at the First Union Spectrum (17,805 capacity). The U.S. national team recently went 7-0 during a tour against European national and professional teams. During the Winter European Tour, the U.S. rallied in the game's final seven minutes to edge PVSK 66-60 on Jan. 31. The two teams also met during the U.S. team's 1999 Winter European Tour, with the Americans notching a narrow 79-74 victory in February 1999. PVSK competes in the Women's EuroLeague (the top professional league in Europe) and features six members of the Hungarian National Team and one member of the Yugoslavian and Lithuanian National teams. "I'm very pleased that we're able to bring the MiZo-PVSK team to the United States for an exhibition game," U.S. national team coach Nell Fortner said. "In the past two years we have played them in two very close games. They have been together a long time and their coach is the national team coach. It's a very, very good team and it will be an excellent competition for us and it will be great for people to see us play an international game that is a style that we will play in the Olympics." The exhibition game also will serve as a homecoming of sorts for U.S. national team member Dawn Staley, a Philadelphia native. The 2000 Olympics are slated to be held Sept. 16 through Oct. 1 in Sydney, Australia. |
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