Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, August 8, 1994                   TAG: 9408090035
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA                                  LENGTH: Medium

STALEY LEADS U.S. WOMEN TO GOODWILL GOLD MEDAL

Understudies no more.

The American women basketball players, who beat France 87-63 on Sunday for the gold medal at the Goodwill Games, are the next Olympians.

``Sometimes back home they called us the second team, the younger group. I think that will change,'' said 6-foot-5 center Lisa Leslie, who scored 18 points.

No more bronze medals, either.

The gold medal was the first in a major international tournament for the U.S. women since they won the world championship in 1990. It was their third straight Goodwill Games gold, and it somewhat atoned for a tarnished bronze in June at the most recent world championships.

``This is great for USA Basketball at a time when lots of countries think they have surpassed us,'' said point guard Dawn Staley, a former University of Virginia standout. ``This puts USA Basketball back on the map.''

Staley scored 11 points in the championship game and was voted MVP of the tournament.

Sheryl Swoopes added 14 points, and Ruthie Bolton-Holifield and Shanda Berry added 11 each. Together with Leslie and several other Goodwill players, they probably will form the core of the 1996 Olympic team - particularly if Goodwill coach Tara VanDerveer is chosen to head that unit.

China beat Russia 96-76 for the Goodwill bronze.

France, a surprising runner-up at the 1993 European championships in Spain, never led and was no match for the quicker Americans.

Catherine Melain led with 16 points, and 6-foot-4 center Isabelle Figalkow - who is to play this season at the University of Colorado - was held to six points after averaging 21 in France's first three wins in the tournament.

``At first we were very nervous,'' French coach Paul Besson said. ``We played [more relaxed] after we knew we couldn't win.''

June's bronze and Sunday's gold probably were watersheds for American women's basketball: the end for an older generation and the beginning for a new one.

Five veteran players off the June club - including Olympians Teresa Edwards and Katrina McClain - chose not to play here. They played on the U.S. bronze-medal team in the 1992 Olympics and the gold-medal team in 1988.

That allowed VanDerveer, head coach at Stanford, to start younger players like Leslie, Staley and Bolton-Holifield - who have played for her on the so-called ``second team'' coming up through the U.S. basketball ranks.

The Goodwill team had only one former Olympian, Clarissa Davis-Wrightsil, and she was added at the last minute as a reserve.

VanDerveer suggested the Goodwill team played better together than her team at the world championships.

``The players on this team were unselfish. I often see too many individual agendas out there,'' VanDerveer added.

VanDerveer seems almost certain to be coaching the next Olympic team. The last two U.S. Olympic coaches - Theresa Grentz and Kay Yow - were promoted to that level after coaching Goodwill teams.

Eight of the 12 Goodwill players head to professional leagues in Europe, leaving VanDerveer to ponder when she next will see them. She said this team probably would be reassembled next summer for a tour leading up to trials for the 1996 Olympics.