Nagnouma Coulibaly of Mali（R）goes up for a lay up （Photo credit：Mark Dadswell/Getty Images） Photo Gallery%26gt；%26gt；
（BEIJING， August 13） -- The United States thrashed Mali 97-41 in the preliminary round of the Olympic Women's Basketball tournament on Wednesday， August 13.
The defeat was inevitable against the defending Olympic champion， but on top of it Mali had to play without captain Hamchetou Maiga， who averaged 12.4 points in her two-game Olympic appearance. Maiga is out of the tournament for good after sustaining an ankle injury in Mali's game against the Czech Republic.
Despite playing minus-Maiga， the African champion managed to stay only one point behind the United States midway through the first quarter， but soon melted down in front of the aggressive US offense.
The US side got double-digit scoring from five players including captain Lisa Leslie， who led the team with 16 points， while Seimone Augustus netted 12.
"We were just trying to keep our level of play really high，" said US forward Tina Thompson. "We're building up to the medal round so we definitely want to stay at the top of our game.
"Mali is a very athletic team but they're kind of inexperienced in competition of this magnitude， so we wanted to just come out and be ourselves，" Thompson added. Notwithstanding
Aminata Sininta was the biggest contributor for Mali， burying 13 points. Fatoumata Bagayoko and Meiya Tireira had seven points apiece.
Despite the loss， Mali is trying to remain optimistic. ""We still have a chance to qualify because we still have two games to go； we will fight our best to win，" Mali center Meiya Tireira said post-game.
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