Women's Basketball Defeats Australia For Its 60th Consecutive Olympic Win and a Spot in the Gold Medal Game

PARIS – The United States women’s basketball team is the gold standard for international basketball. Winners of 60 straight Olympic contests after defeating Australia 85-64, the U.S. advanced to Sunday’s gold medal match to play for its eighth consecutive Olympic championship.

The U.S. strides for the finish line against France, who defeated Belgium in a semifinal game Friday night, in pursuit of their 10th overall gold medal. The gold medal contest is slated for Sunday at 3:30 p.m. Paris time (9:30 a.m. EDT).

Newly substituted into the starting lineup, Jackie Young made her impact known for the second straight game in which she was one of the first five on the court. After tallying 15 points, three rebounds and two assists in Wednesday's quarterfinal game against Nigeria, Young notched 14 points, two rebounds and dished out five assists against Australia.

“This is a great space for Jackie to be in,” Young’s USA and WNBA teammate, A’ja Wilson, said. “I think we're also seeing Jackie starting to form into herself, building into herself, understanding, establishing herself in our league and also in the world. So I'm very happy. I'm very happy in the role that I'm in to be alongside her, to watch her grow…I'm so glad that she's able to just spread her wings in this space.”

Young, who helped the U.S. win a gold medal in 3x3 basketball at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, now has a chance to add more gold to her Olympic jewelry box.

The U.S. completed the wire-to-wire victory behind Young’s statistical pop and Breanna Stewart’s 16 points, six rebounds, and five assists on 50% shooting. The 21-point victory is U.S. women’s basketball’s third-best margin of victory in an Olympic semifinal game but the highest in a semifinal played outside the country. The 31-point win over Canada at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles and a 22-point defeat of Australia at the 1996 Games in Atlanta are the only two U.S. semifinals won by a larger margin.

The U.S. had already established a dominant tone by halftime, shooting 53% to Australia’s 33%, and outrebounding the Opals 25-15. The American women scored 14 points off Aussie turnovers. Although they didn’t make a 3-pointer in the first quarter, they sank four of seven 3-point attempts in the second, giving them a 45-27 halftime advantage.

“We're able to just build chemistry off of each game,” Young said. “I think the biggest thing for us was just executing the defensive schemes, being locked in on defense. And we know that we can score the ball, but we're able to play and transition at the pace that we want to play whenever we get defensive stops.”

The U.S. limited Australia to fewer than 20 points in each of the first three quarters and held the Opals to just 36% shooting. The Americans also racked up 19 total points off 12 Aussie turnovers and outscored them on the fastbreak, 26-9.

The Australian team rosters six active WNBA players, the second-most behind Team USA, whose whole roster consists of WNBA pros. The Aussie Opals entered the match on a three-game win streak, gathering victories over Canada, France, and Serbia after their upset loss to Nigeria in pool play.

Despite a disappointing start to Olympic play, the Opals were the main challenger rivaling the U.S. women. They medaled in five of the last seven Olympic Games – silver in 2000, 2004, and 2008 and bronze in 1996 and 2012 – albeit losing to Team USA in all five of those medal-outings.

Friday’s contest was the ninth in the all-time Olympic series between USA and Australia, and the Americans remain undefeated in all nine meetings. They moved to 20-0 overall against the Opals in international meetings with the win that now sends them to Sunday’s gold medal match.

“I honestly don't think they feel the pressure,” U.S. coach Cheryl Reeve said of the 60-game win streak. “Because the journey is unique to them. This is their first one together, and, yeah, we've had some repeat Olympians, but it's a little bit more about a process for them…It’s a little different. The coaches, you don’t want to be the one that’s not able to continue the streak, right? And so your mind can work on you a little bit.

“But I can tell you one thing, there's not going to be a coach that's in the seat that isn't going to be prepared…Because the pressure does that to you. You're going to think of every possible thing so that you can get your team across the finish line.”

Madie Chandler is writing for Team USA as a graduate student in the Sports Capital Journalism Program at Indiana University Indianapolis.