Olympics-Basketball 3x3-U.S. to take on Spain, Germany face Canada in women's semis

By Benjamin Mallet

PARIS (Reuters) - Reigning champions the United States, Spain, Germany and Canada qualified for the semi-finals of the women's 3x3 basketball tournament at the Paris Olympics on Saturday.

Germany beat Spain 18-15 as they both earned places in the final four by finishing first and second in the pool stage and will next face Canada and the United States respectively.

Tokyo Olympic champions the U.S. beat China 21-13 in a playoff to seal their fifth straight victory, after defeating the same opponents 14-12 in a pool game earlier on Saturday.

Dearica Hamby, who came into the squad for the injured Cameron Brink before the Olympics started, made the difference for the Americans, scoring nine points, including all three of her two-point attempts from long range.

The U.S. lost their three opening pool games to Germany, Azerbaijan and Australia before finally finding their groove and embarking on their five-game winning run.

"We needed those three losses to kind of wake us up and see that like although we may be more talented, we got to figure out a way to dig deep and pull off wins and compete," Hamby said.

"Gold is a standard for USA and we're trying to live up to that, but we started 0-3, so we kind of took the pressure off ourselves, we found our fun enjoying it and here we are."

Canada also went through a playoff with a 21-10 win over Australia, Kacie Bosch scoring a game-leading nine points, after earlier edging Azerbaijan 21-19 in their pool game.

France, who were already eliminated, ended their campaign with an 18-16 win over Australia in overtime, leaving the arena to rapturous applause from the Place de la Concorde crowd.

The men's pool stage concludes on Sunday, with six teams still in with a chance of making the semi-finals after defending champions Latvia locked up a direct spot on Friday.

(Reporting by Benjamin Mallet; Editing by Ken Ferris)