The US women played their toughest game yet at the Beijing Games, beating Russia 67-52 behind 21 points from Diana Taurasi in a hard-fought and physcial semi-final basketball match-up Thursday.
After playing even for much of the first half, the Americans made their move with a 12-0 run in the third quarter and took a 55-43 lead midway through the fourth on the shooting of Taurasi and Tina Thompson, who finished with 15 points.
With the win the Americans will next play the winner of the Australia-China semi-final to be played later Thursday in Saturday's gold medal match.
The US win also avenged a 75-68 loss to Russia in the 2006 World Championship semi-finals.
‘No doubt about it (that loss) was in our heads,’ said guard Sue Bird.
‘One of the last things we said before walking onto the court as a team was 'we have waited for two years' which we have...for us the first test was Russia, now it continues to the gold medal game.’
Russia was led by centre Maria Stepanova with 14 points and Tatiana Shchegoleva with 12.
Russia's American point guard Becky Hammon could only manage three points in the match, well off her 13.2 points average in these Games.
‘Obviously it was a very tough match, we were able to hang with them a little bit through about three quarters, which was an accomplishment for us,’ Hammond said.
‘When you are playing the United States you just can't make mistakes, but we made some mistakes and we missed some shots.’
Nerves appeared to get the best of both teams in the early going, with the United States committing eight turnovers in the first quarter to fall behind 28-21 midway through the second period.
The Americans shot 34 percent from the field for the game, while committing a total of 22 turnovers, but hit nine of 20 three pointers. The Americans also grabbed 21 offensive rebounds.
The Russians shot better at 45 percent, but only hit one of 14 three pointers. The Russians also found it difficult to confront the bulky American defense with both sides playing physical and actively contesting shots.
The United States which won each of its six preliminary matches by an average of nearly 45 points, have been the medal favourites in Beijing along with Australia.
The US women have won six of the seven Olympic golds in the history of the Games, including the last three championships.
In a warm up match against Russia earlier this month in Haining, China the USA beat their European rivals 93-58.
