Australia deals U.S. a loss in Las Vegas

Breanna Stewart and her U.S. Olympic teammates aren’t panicking, even though they’ve lost consecutive games for the first time in a decade.

Two days after losing to a team of WNBA AllStars, the Americans fell to Australia 7067 on Friday in Las Vegas in a preOlympic exhibition.

“There’s a standard and the standard is winning and we haven’t gotten to that point yet,” said Stewart, who scored 17 points. “It’s frustrating, it’s part of the game and part of the process. When we get to Tokyo and get to the Olympics that’s when it’s really, really crunch time. We’re continuing to elevate and get better every day. We’ll get to where we want to be.”

The United States was 2for18 from 3point range with 18 turnovers.

It was the first time the U.S. has lost backtoback games since 2011 in Spain. The Americans had gone 292 since then in exhibition games.

Ezi Magbegor, Stewart’s Seattle Storm teammate, scored 17 points to lead Australia.

Changing teams?

Former Stanford standout Nneka Ogwumike and Duke alum Elizabeth Williams have filed appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in a lastditch effort to play for Nigeria in Tokyo.

Chiney Ogwumike, another former Team USA player and Stanford alum, reportedly got approval from FIBA — basketball’s international governing agency — to play for Nigeria as a naturalized player.

Despite having USA Basketball’s approval, the requests by Nneka Ogwumike and Williams to play for Nigeria were denied by FIBA, which cited the players’ long associations with Team USA.