Breanna Stewart scored 20 of her 23 points in the first half to help the U.S. beat Australia 79-55 on Wednesday in the quarterfinals. The Americans will face Serbia on Friday in the semifinals looking to advance to their seventh consecutive gold medal game. The Serbians, who won the bronze medal in the 2016 Rio Games, rallied to beat China 77-70 in the quarterfinals.
For the first time since getting together about three weeks ago the U.S. looked like the dominant team that’s won the last six gold medals and 53 consecutive games in the Olympics dating back to the 1992 Barcelona Games. “Knockout rounds brings out a certain intensity about a team and that played a huge role in it,” Sue Bird said.
“It’s do or die at this point. That helps. I do think we subtly have been taking steps in the right direction and getting better. We’re trending in the right direction and getting more comfortable.” During the pool games the U.S. got of to slow starts, trailing after the first quarter in each contest. Stewart made sure that wouldn’t happen against Australia.
