The Opals have defeated China in their Quarter Final clash to set-up a showdown with the USA.
The Opals have stormed into the Semi Finals of the Olympic Games with a tough 75-60 Quarter Final win over China.
The Opals will now play the undefeated US team on Friday at 2:00AM (Australian Eastern Standard Time) for the right to advance to the gold medal game after the Americans earlier cruised past Candada in their Quarter Final clash.
Liz Cambage continued her impressive form with 17 points and seven rebounds to lead the Opals scorers against China.
Lauren Jackson added 12 points and Suzy Batkovic had 10 points and nine rebounds as the Aussie bigs proved too much for the Chinese. Jackson surpassed Brazilian Janeth Arcain to become the all-time leading scorer in Olympic women’s basketball history during the match.
Sam Richards was also strong for Australia with six assists and three steals.
Zengyu Ma was the best of the Chinese with 15 points and five rebounds.
The Australians entered their Quarter Final clash as favourites but the Asian Champions gave them a tough match-up.
The Opals started the better and Jackson nailed a turnaround jumper in the paint to open the scoring. By the end of the first period, the Australians had established a 22-16 lead and looked set to dominate the Asian champions.
Australia led by as many as nine points in the first half, but the Chinese fought back in the second period as Lijie Miao and Xiaoli Chen each had nine first half points.
The Chinese offence started to click while the Opals struggled for nine minutes without a field goal, allowing China to take a narrow one-point lead into halftime, 36-35.
The Opals came out of the half with renewed intensity and retook the lead, establishing a four-point edge before the Chinese surged once again.
At the final change the game remained in doubt, as the Opals led by just a single basket, 55-52.
The Australians turned on a show in the final period however and held the Chinese to just eight points in the quarter. The Opals scored at will inside the paint against a tiring China to take the 15-point win and set-up a showdown with archrivals the US.
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