(NBC Olympics screenshot)
Danielle Page, a 2004 graduate of Lewis-Palmer, helped Serbia women’s basketball capture the bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics on Saturday.
Page had 10 points, eight rebounds, three steals and two blocks as Serbia beat France 70-63 in the bronze medal match at Carioca Arena 1 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Serbia and France were tied at 27 at halftime, and Page was scoreless at that point. But she and her teammates came alive in the third quarter, jumping out to a 55-42 lead after the frame. They wouldn’t allow France to get any closer in the fourth quarter, and held on to win.
(NBC Olympics screenshot)
Page knocked down two 3-point shots in the game.
She averaged 10.6 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game during the course of the tournament. Page scored in double figures in six of Serbia’s eight games.
This is the first time the Serbian national team has ever competed at the Olympics — let alone medaled. But the team is the successor of the former Yugoslavia women’s team, which won bronze in 1980 and silver in 1988. Yugoslavia split apart as national state in 1992.
Page was an all-state player at Lewis-Palmer, averaging 22.0 points, 12.7 rebounds, 4.5 blocks, 4.3 steals and 2.8 assists as a senior. She then played at Nebraska for four seasons, and had a brief stint in the WNBA. She has played professionally in Bulgaria, Israel, Hungary and France.
Page became a Serbian citizen in 2015, and first played for the national team at EuroBasket 2015, where they won the competition.