BRIDGEPORT, CT–On Friday night in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the U.S. Women’s National team played the third of their four exhibition games on the way to Rio. The crowd was ready to go from the tip, and the team followed suit, overwhelming Canada by a score of 83-43.

Here are five takeaways from Friday’s action.

Connecticut Still Owns Women’s Basketball

UConn has been a powerhouse in women’s basketball for over 20 years, and with the last four NCAA championships in their trophy case, that doesn’t seem to be coming to an end any time soon.

Their dominion isn’t limited to the college game, however, as evidenced by the U.S. Women’s National Team’s starting lineup Friday night in Bridgeport: Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore, Breanna Stewart, Tina Charles. That’s right, an all-UConn starting lineup. Plus, the Canadians had a current UConn player, Kia Nurse, in their starting lineup.

Photo Credit: NBAE/Getty Images

Oh, and the coach making the decision on the American lineup tonight? Yep, Geno Auriemma. Why did he make the decision to start five of his former players? Simple. “I thought it was fun,” he said.

It was fun, as the already raucous crowd lost their mind as they realized what was happening. Unsurprisingly, the players enjoyed it as well.

“It’s a special moment. We took a picture there at the end of the game and it kinda hit me, cause we haven’t necessarily focused on that as much,” said Maya Moore. “But for that moment, you know wow. Stewie being young, Diana, Sue older, and me and Tina kind in the middle there. So it’s just really rewarding.”

The latest Huskie to arrive on the National Team scene, Breanna Stewart, agreed. “That was really cool. I didn’t really realize it until they called out the starters. And you heard the fans getting louder and louder and louder. It was cool to see everyone’s reaction from it.”

Defense Wins Championships…And Gold Medals

The U.S. set the tone in the first quarter, limiting the Canadians to just six points in the first 10 minutes. By the end of the game, the U.S. had forced 20 turnovers, and held Canada to just 43 points on 32.7 percent shooting.

All night they frustrated the Canadians with their full-court pressure, trapping, and overall stellar defensive play. “Just defensively they get after it,” said Kia Nurse, one of Canada’s guards. “They switch well, they have good lineups that are able to do it. It just presents a bit of a difficulty for disrupting offensives.”

In case the defensive performance wasn’t clear by those numbers, here’s another: the 17 made field goals by the Canadians tonight was one less than the 18 the Americans scored in the first half alone.

That kind of smothering work is what lead Coach Auriemma to remark after the game, “I thought defensively we were about as good as we can be given the short amount of work that we’ve done.”

They say defense wins championships, well it also wins gold medals, and defensive performances like tonight’s will go along way towards the U.S. standing atop the podium in a few weeks.

Starting Slow

Unlike the exhibition against France, in which the American lead was just 3 points after the first quarter, the U.S. Women’s National Team held a healthy 19-6 lead at the conclusion of the initial frame this evening in Bridgeport. But while the score was more favorable, the United States’ start was still disappointing.

The team stumbled out of the starting blocks, turning the ball over twice and putting up multiple terribly missed shots in the first few minutes. Even the U.S. Women’s National Team isn’t immune to the challenges of playing with new teammates.

Coach Auriemma isn’t worried, however, stating, “That’s the general progression of all the teams that I’ve been involved with in USA basketball. These games are as much a game, but they’re more a practice session. We really can’t even go five on five in practice.” After noting the numerous events and packed schedule the team has to deal with, he added, “Little by little, we get caught up. We gotta get done in 8 days, what a lot of these teams have been doing for 8 months.”

Difference-Making Athleticism

Every time the Olympics come around, the American squad boasts the best group of athletes at the games. This time around is no different. No matter which combination of players Coach Auriemma puts out on the floor, the U.S. is likely to have the better athlete at each and every position.

The advantage athleticism brings is obvious on both ends, but tonight it was especially so on defense. It’s rare that this group of Americans makes a mistake on that side of the ball, but even on the rare occasions in which they did tonight, they were able to recover.

Take this play for example, as Diana Taurasi gets burnt on a backdoor cut. Canada appears to be on their way to an easy bucket for once, but Elena Delle Donne has other ideas. She realizes what happened, then immediately sprints across the whole lane, meeting Nirra Fields before the Canadian even leaves the ground.

There’s no high-flying block, but it’s still an elite display of athleticism. In a split second, Delle Donne made the decision to turn, sprint nearly 20 feet, then smother the offensive player while keeping her hands up in mid-air to avoid committing a foul.

Other teams may have one or two players that can make that defensive play, but pretty much every player on the U.S. can. That ability to switch and recover is what allows them to hold a team to 43 points. Canada did everything right on that play. Everything! And they still couldn’t get a bucket.

Working Inside-Out

With dominant post players such as Tina Charles, Brittney Griner, and Sylvia Fowles, the U.S. is sure to have the advantage inside against nearly every opponent. But the bigs aren’t the only ones scoring inside the three-point line.

Whether it was Lindsay Whalen boring her way to the basket, or Maya Moore knocking down a midrange jumper, the U.S. did the majority of its work on two-pointers tonight. Of their 30 made field goals, only 4 came from behind the arc.

In their three exhibition games so far, the U.S. has made just 14 triples, six of which came from Diana Taurasi. While loaded with offensive talent, the team is just not full of sharpshooters; only three players are shooting over 35 percent from beyond the arc in the WNBA this season.

The thing is, there’s so much offensive talent on the floor for the U.S. at all times, that it just doesn’t matter. It didn’t matter tonight, and it won’t matter in Rio.