Unbeaten USA to face Australia in Quarterfinal Contest
Following the 2020 Olympic women’s basketball preliminary round, FIBA conducted the draw to determine quarterfinal pairings for the Tokyo Olympic basketball medal round on Monday night in Saitama, Japan. The U.S. Olympic Women’s Basketball Team (3-0) will take on Australia (1-2) to open medal round play on Wednesday, Aug. 4 (1:40 p.m. JST / 12:40 p.m. EDT).
“We’re in the quarterfinals playing a team like Australia, who we’re very familiar with,” said USA head coach Dawn Staley (South Carolina). “Australia will be a formidable opponent because we know each other so well, and we look forward to the challenge of getting out of the quarterfinals. We certainly have to execute on both sides of the ball and continue to get better to advance.”
After dropping its opener to Belgium (85-70) and a close contest to China (76-74), in order to advance Australia had to defeat Puerto Rico in its final pool play game by 25 points. After trailing 45-44 heading into the locker room, Australia stormed out in the second half for a 27-point, 96-69 victory to advance.
The other three quarterfinals games will feature China (3-0), which won Group C, against Group A second place finisher Serbia (1-2); Group A first place finisher Spain (3-0) will meet up against France (1-2), the third-place team out of Group B; while host Japan (2-1), which finished second in Group B, will compete against Group C second place finisher Belgium (2-1).
Winners of the USA versus Australia game will face the winner of the China versus Serbia contest in the first of two semifinal contests on Aug. 6 (1:40 p.m. JST / 12:40 p.m. EDT), while the winners of the other two quarterfinal games will square off in the second semifinal (8 p.m. JST / 7 a.m. EDT).
Semifinals winners advance to the Aug. 8 gold medal game (11:30 a.m. JST / Aug. 7 at 10:30 p.m. EDT), while the bronze medal game will be played on Aug. 7 (4 p.m. JST / 3 a.m. EDT).
Teams eliminated from the Olympic women’s basketball tournament are Nigeria (0-3) from Group B, South Korea (0-3) from Group A, Puerto Rico (0-3) from Group C and Canada (1-2), which finished in second place out of Group A.
The No. 1 team in the world and following its three preliminary games, the USA owns an all-time record of 69-3 in Olympic play and is riding a 52-game winning streak in Olympic competition, which began with the 1992 bronze medal game, includes a record six-straight gold medals and three victories in Tokyo.
