Scoring 37 points and tying for the third-best single-game performance in women’s basketball in Olympic history usually makes a person happy.
Not Liz Cambage, even though Australia needed just about every one of those points to rally for a 92-86 win over Japan on Thursday night.
“At the end of the day, I didnt’t really care how many points I got just as long as we won,” Cambage said. “I’m not happy with that game. I had bad defense the first half. There’s things I need to go back and look at on tape and learn from.”
Cambage did have three turnovers and blocked three shots _ two during the final minutes to help preserve the win. But she was going up against Japan’s Ramu Tokashiki, who scored 23 points herself and helped her team jump out to a 16-point lead early in the fourth quarter.
That’s when Cambage took over and scored 16 points helping Australia finish the game on a 31-9 run. tied Elena Baranova of Russia, who scored 37 points against Japan in 1996 for the third-best performance in the Olympics. Cambage also topped the 36 points Lara Sanders had Tuesday for Turkey, which ranks fourth