Fire alarm forces 2 a.m. evacuation at Women’s Basketball World Cup teams’ hotel

BERLIN (AP) — 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.

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.

“It was kind of crazy. Just kind of happened,” Australia forward Ezi 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.”

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