USA vs. Australia: US Women Face Toughest Challenge Yet vs. Aussies

The U.S. women’s Olympic basketball team is rarely challenged in Olympic play, but they’ll likely face their stiffest competition of the tournament when they play Australia in the semifinals today.

The Americans enter play with a 39-game winning streak that just so happens to include three gold-medal triumphs over the Aussies.

While they will be the heavy favorites once again, U.S.A. will have to keep their eyes on Lauren Jackson at all times. She recently became the all-time leading scorer in women’s Olympic basketball, and is one of the best players in the WNBA.

Pairing the 6’5’’ Jackson with 6’4’’ Suzy Batkovic and the 6’8’’ Elizabeth Cambage gives Australia a ton of size inside. It will be up to Candace Parker (6”4’’), Sylvia Fowles (6’5’’) and Tina Charles (6’3’’) to slow them down.

With the Americans ability to minimize the Boomers inside, expect guards like Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi to destroy their opponent on the perimeter. The Aussie’s simply don’t have the guard play to keep up.

The combination of a strong inside-outside game has made America incredibly difficult to stop thus far, but there is no doubt the height of Australia  will be their toughest test yet.

Then again, that’s not really saying much. The U.S. has been on cruise control throughout the last two weeks. They beat Croatia by 25, Angola by 52, Turkey by 31, Czech Republic by 27, China by 48 and Canada by 43.

That’s complete and utter domination. Maybe this game will be within 20 points.

Prediction

In the Beijing Olympics the U.S. held Australia to a woefully low 25 percent field-goal mark. They breezed to a 27-point win then, and not a whole lot has changed since.

One of the only changes has been that the Boomers lost a game to France in pool-play—that’s why this isn’t the finals matchup.

The best game of the Olympics may come a game before the finals, but the Americans know this is the team to beat and expect a complete effort from the girls as they get one step closer to yet another Olympic gold medal.

America 91, Australia 70

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