Staley Guides U.S. to Olympic Semifinals

TOKYO – South Carolina women’s basketball head coach Dawn Staley led her United States team into the Tokyo Olympic semifinals with a commanding 79-55 victory over Australia on Wednesday. Shaking off an exhibition loss to the Aussies a few weeks ago, the Americans made an early statement with a 14-point lead after the opening quarter and never looked back.
 
“I think our players had a look in their eyes that they didn’t want to go home,” USA head coach  Staley said. “They want to compete for a gold medal. This was a do-or-die situation, and it was great to see them just play with that energy and effort on both sides of the basketball.”
 
Playing just 16 minutes against Australia thanks to the lopsided scoring, South Carolina alumna A’ja Wilson hit double figures for the fourth-straight game with 10 points and reeled in four rebounds. Through four games of the tournament, Wilson’s 17.8 points per game leads the U.S. team and is the fourth-highest average in the event. Her 8.5 rebounds per game are second on her team and sixth in the tournament. Shooting 62.8 percent (27-of-43) from the field, she ranks third in the tournament and second on her team.
 
On Wednesday, the U.S. saw Australia open a narrow 6-4 lead early before holding the Opals scoreless for more than six minutes in the first quarter, which included 10 Australia turnovers to yield a 26-12 U.S. advantage after the opening 10 minutes. A tighter second quarter still saw the Americans out-score Australia by seven to take a 48-27 lead into halftime.
 
The U.S. added eight more points to its lead in the third quarter, allowing Staley to go to her bench more in the fourth as all 12 players on the roster saw action on Wednesday.
 
In Friday’s semifinal game, set for 12:40 a.m. ET on NBC, the United States will face Serbia for the right to play for a gold medal. The Serbs finished second in Group A and then eliminated previously undefeated China in the quarterfinals to advance.