PARIS – Ixhelt Gonzalez converted an uncontested layup after a beautiful backdoor pass from Becca Murray to give Team USA a 53-50 lead over Great Britain. It was a defining moment and a lead the U.S. would hold on to for the final two minutes of a 59-52 victory over their English-speaking opponents.

“It was a moment of relief — it felt like the world fell off our shoulders,” Gonzalez said of the pivotal moment.

The victory in the quarter-finals of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games at the Bercy Arena on Wednesday afternoon ensures that the American women will play the semi-final against China in two days, on Friday, September 6.

Gonzalez – who at 20 is the youngest player on Team USA – led the winning effort, scoring 16 points and grabbing 11 rebounds, while Rose Hollermann had 15 points and 13 rebounds.

Hollermann praised the enthusiastic Gonzalez, a diminutive player who shows a wealth of experience on the field, well beyond her years.

“Ixhelt is young, but this is her second Paralympics – you can see that she is experienced,” Hollermann said. “She has changed her mentality and is now a bit of our fire in terms of attack. She comes off the bench with so much intensity.

“We’ve had her on the team since she was very little, so this moment is really incredible for us,” she added.

The US looked to be cruising comfortably, with a 31-24 halftime lead. However, they let it slip. Britain’s Robyn Love scored from outside the paint to take the lead, 48-47, with just over seven minutes left in the back-and-forth affair.

The US didn’t panic though and after over two minutes without either team finding the net, Hollerman broke the drought by scoring two key points off a nice pass from Courtney Ryan. The US regained the lead, 49-48. Team GB jumped back into the lead a minute later with another two from Love, before US team captain Murray responded a minute later to put the US ahead, this time for good.

“It’s all about confidence in this team and we wanted to make sure that no matter what happened in the third quarter or the second half, we were going to come out on top,” said Gonzalez, who lives in Chicago but whose parents are of Mexican descent.

The US’s largest lead was 10 points, while Britain was four points ahead at one point.