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Staley, USA Set for Quarterfinals Tuesday
Women's Basketball  . 

Staley, USA Set for Quarterfinals Tuesday

Aug. 15, 2016

COLUMBIA — South Carolina women’s basketball head coach Dawn Staley and Team USA powered through five preliminary round games last week to win Group B in the 2016 Rio Olympics. The next step in the Americans’ bid for a sixth-straight gold medal begins on Tue., Aug. 16, at 5:45 p.m. (ET) with a quarterfinal matchup against Group A’s No. 4 seed Japan.

Olympic play began for the United States on Aug. 7 with a 121-56 win over Senegal. The Americans defeated the other four members of Group B — Spain, Serbia, Canada and China — to finish preliminary round play atop the group standings. Australia topped Group A with a perfect 5-0 record as well.

The Americans won their games by an average of 40.8 points, including the U.S. women’s Olympic record 65-point win over Senegal. The U.S. leads the tournament in scoring average (104.0 ppg), scoring defense (63.2 ppg), rebounding average (43.6 rpg), field goal percentage (.577) and 3-point field goal percentage (.425).

Tuesday’s quarterfinal against Japan will air on NBCSN. The Japanese team closed out preliminary round action with a 79-71 win over France on Sunday and averages 77.2 points per game on 45.3 percent field goal shooting. The winner of Tuesday’s quarterfinal will face the winner of the quarterfinal matchup between France and Canada in a semifinal game on Thu., Aug. 18, at either 2 or 6 p.m. (ET). The gold medal game is slated for Sat., Aug. 20, at 2:30 p.m. (ET) with the bronze medal game tipping off earlier that day at 10:30 a.m. (ET). Television information for the semifinals and medal games has not been announced, but all games are streaming live at www.nbcolympics.com.

This is Staley’s second stint as an Olympic assistant coach as she helped the United States to the gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics shortly after taking the reins at South Carolina. While coaches do not receive Olympic medals, Staley has collected three Olympic gold medals as a player as the United States opened its five-year string on the top step of the podium in 1996 in Atlanta. The Staley-led Americans went on to claim gold in 2000 in Sydney, Australia, and 2004 in Athens, Greece.

Around her coaching duties, Staley has also enjoyed the city of Rio de Janeiro, which she has been sharing with fans on Twitter.

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