Notre Dame women's basketball player Natalie Achonwa knows all about being a part of a remarkable tournament run.

In her first two years with the Irish, Achonwa has helped lead Muffet's Squad to the national championship game both times.

Now, she's looking to do it on the world stage.

Saturday, Achonwa played her first game ever in the Olympics for Team Canada. The Canadians were heavy underdogs against 2nd seeded Russia and almost pulled off a remarkable upset. Canada was up 10 in the 4th quarter, when Russia went on an 18-3 run to pull off the 58-53 win.

Achonwa scored 3 points, grabbed four rebounds and dished out three assists in 22 minutes of action.

Canada is back in action Monday at 3pm against Great Britian.
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Tina Charles scored 14 points and Angel McCoughtry added 13 to lead the U.S. women's basketball team to a sloppy 81-56 victory over Croatia on Saturday in their Olympic opener.

Coach Geno Auriemma had said he was hoping that the Americans could play a style of basketball that would be entertaining and help grow the game internationally. That didn't happen Saturday as the U.S. struggled for the first three quarters before pulling away to win their 34th consecutive Olympic contest.

The victory was far different than the 54-point pounding the Americans gave Croatia a week earlier.

Despite missing its first 14 shots, Croatia hung tough for the first 30 minutes before the Americans finally could pull away.

The U.S., which has dominated its opponents en route to the last four gold medals, only led 53-49 early in the fourth quarter before a 16-0 run put the game out of reach.