LONDON -- The Australian women's basketball team beat China 75-60 in the quarterfinals here on Tuesday at the London Olympics.
The Aussies will next play the United States in the semifinals.
Elizabeth Cambage led Australia with 17 points, while Lauren Jackson added 12 to move past Brazilian Janeth Arcain to become the all-time Olympic women's scoring leader with 536 points.
Leading 36-35 into the second half, China stayed close through the third quarter, trailing by just 52-55 going into the fourth quarter. Cambage and Jenna O'Hea put together an 8-0 run which gave Australia a 55-50 lead late in the third quarterfinals.
The 75-60 loss represented a step forward for China, who had lost to Australia 56-90 in the semifinals at the 2008 Beijing Games and by 58-91 at the 2010 world championships.
The US team won all three finals of last three Olympics and is seeking its fifth straight Olympic gold medal. Australia lost the previous three finals by an average of 20 points.
As the defending champion, the US team extended its Olympics winning streak to 39 games after beating Canada 91-48. Diana Taurasi led the US team with 15 points, and Sylvia Fowles and Canadace Parker scored 12 apiece to continue US team's dominant performance.
The Americans forced 26 turnovers to celebrate their 39th straight victory in Olympic play, which was 20 years after the win that started the streak -- an 88-74 victory over Cuba for the bronze medal at the 1992 Barcelona Games.
The other semifinal will be played between France and Russia. Becky Hammon scored 19 points, including a go-ahead basket with 13 seconds left, to lead Russia to a thrilling 66-63 victory over Turkey while France edged out Czech Republic with another thrilling 71-68 win to stay unbeaten at the tournament.
The semifinals will be held on August 9th, Thursday.
