Storm’s Ezi Magbegor leads Australia to win after early hotel fire alarm

A fire alarm went off in the middle of the night at the hotel where most of the Women’s Basketball World Cup teams were staying early Sunday morning.

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The players and coaches all had to evacuate the hotel around 2 a.m. before going back in about an hour later. The Americans stay at a different hotel so weren’t affected by the early morning wake-up.

There was no fire, someone had pushed the emergency alarm button in the elevator, according to Australia coach Sandy Brondello.

“That’s a what-if situation, isn’t it?” Brondello said smiling. “Now we have that in our toolbox. Never done that before.”

The interrupted sleep didn’t seem to hurt Australia, which beat Turkey 87-71 in the first game of the day that tipped at 11:30 a.m. local time.

Seattle Storm forward Ezi Magbegor scored 21 points to lead the Opals to the win.

“It was kind of crazy. Just kind of happened,” Magbegor said. “Knowing that it’s out of our control, so just getting back to sleep and waking up. No one was going to feel sorry for us.”

Turkish coach Andrea Masson said that he and his players got about three hours of sleep because of the alarm.

“They had a really bad night last night,” Masson said. “That’s not an excuse, but that’s the reality.”

Turkey, led by Sevgi Uzun with 24 points, was down 8-0 at the start but fought back after a timeout to lead 15-14. That was brief, however, as the Opals rallied to end the first quarter 21-15 up and did not relinquish the lead for the rest of the game.

Turkey’s Goksen Fitik went off with what appeared to be a right-ankle injury in the third quarter but she returned in the fourth.

The Australian team features seven World Cup debutants. Team captain Sami Whitcomb of the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury had to withdraw before the tournament with a lingering knee injury.

Australia next plays European champion Belgium on Monday in a showdown that will likely decide which team progresses directly to the quarterfinals as group winner. Australia, after two wins, is already assured of at least a playoff place in the final phase of the competition.

This post combines articles by Doug Feinberg and Ciarán Fahey of The Associated Press.

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