A6 — BAKER CITY HERALD
SATURDAY, AUGUST 7, 2021
U.S. men top Australia, on to gold medal game
Americans will
take on France
Felix sets new women’s
Olympics medal record
By Jim Vertuno
Associated Press
By Brian Mahoney
AP Basketball Writer
SAITAMA, Japan — The
U.S. has owned gold for three
straight Olympics, making the
middle of the medals platform
property of the Americans.
The Australians tried
everything they could to shove
them off.
“They hit us with a nice
punch,” Kevin Durant said after
their men’s Olympic semifi nals
matchup. “We knew that team
was going to get us down early
and see how we’d respond.”
The response was not what
Australia had hoped.
Durant scored 23 points,
Devin Booker had 20 and the
U.S. blew past and eventually
blew away the Aussies 97-78
on Thursday after falling into a
15-point hole.
With their gold-medal streak
looking in jeopardy midway
through the second quarter,
the Americans overwhelmed
the Australians with a 48-14
stretch that gave them a 74-55
lead after three periods.
The U.S. missed its fi rst 10
3-point attempts and didn’t
hit one until late in the second
quarter. Then it felt as if the
Americans hardly missed again,
with Booker making three
3-pointers.
“Obviously, getting down 15
points you know you’ve got to
bring it up a notch and that’s
what we did,” Booker said.
Jrue Holiday had 11 points,
eight rebounds and eight assists
for the U.S., which will play
France for a fourth straight gold
medal Saturday. The French
beat the Americans 83-76 in
their Olympic opener.
That was part of a 2-3 start
to the summer for the U.S.,
which included a loss to the
Australians in an exhibition
game in Las Vegas.
The Americans don’t look
like that team anymore.
They look like the best team
OLYMPICS ROUNDUP
Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images-TNS
USA’s Kevin Wayne Durant dribbles the ball past Australia’s Jock Landale (left)
in the men’s semi-fi nal basketball match between Australia and USA during the
Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama on Thursday,
Aug. 5, 2021.
in the world, like those that
used to win gold with ease.
It’s clear the Americans still
have their grip on gold and it’s
going to take more than a few
bad minutes for anyone to take
it away from them.
Patty Mills scored 15 points
for Australia, which still needs
a win for its fi rst Olympic
basketball medal.
The Australians have fi n-
ished fourth four times at the
Olympics, including in 2016,
but believed this time they
could bring home gold.
For 1 1/2 quarters, it looked
like they’d get a chance.
They dropped the Ameri-
cans into their second double-
digit defi cit in two games,
outplaying the world’s No.
1-ranked team and looking
capable of forcing the U.S. to
settle for anything other than
Olympic gold for the fi rst time
since the Americans stumbled
home with bronze in 2004.
But the U.S. recovered and
romped after halftime, improv-
ing to 9-0 against Australia at
the Olympics.
“In the locker room, it
basically was, ‘How bad do
you want it?’ And we came out
with the same intent we had
in the fi rst half,” Australia’s
Nic Kay said. “We didn’t do it
at the level we needed to. It’s
unfortunate.”
The minutes before the fi rst
semifi nal were another unusu-
al scene in these most unusual
Olympics, where the public
address announcer pleaded
multiple times for players to
clear the court while Durant
and Mills were warming up
so a robot that entertains the
almost-nonexistent audience
could perform his shooting
routine before the game.
The robot missed both his
attempts from halfcourt. His
long-range shooting was off.
So were the Americans, at
least for a little while.
The Australians opened
an eight-point lead while the
Americans managed only one
basket over a span of more
than four minutes. Australia
took a 24-18 lead into the
second quarter after Chris
Goulding made a 3-pointer in
the closing seconds.
The U.S. kept misfi ring
from behind the arc and even
had some shaky moments at
the rim — Khris Middleton
had an open dunk attempt
coming off the baseline but
slammed the ball into the front
of the rim.
The Australians took advan-
tage with eight straight points
midway through the second.
Dante Exum made a 3-pointer,
Matisse Thybulle converted a
three-point play after scoring
on the break and Exum threw
a lob to Jock Landale to make
it 41-26 with 5:23 to go.
But the Australians got
only one basket the rest of the
half and will look back at that
stretch if they again go home
without a medal. They still led
by 11 with 2:59 to go but the
Americans cut the defi cit to
45-42 by halftime.
“Last fi ve minutes of the
second quarter they were
fantastic and it continued into
the third,” U.S. coach Gregg
Popovich said.
The Americans started the
second half with two buckets
from Holiday and two more
from Durant. By the time the
Australians got a basket nearly
four minutes into the half, the
U.S. had opened a nine-point
lead.
The U.S. outscored Australia
32-10 and led 74-55 heading
into the fourth quarter.
“Everything fell in line for
us in that second half and
that’s who we are,” Du-
rant said.
TOKYO — The new
medal standard in Olym-
pic women’s track has
been set. American Al-
lyson Felix stands alone
at the top and still has a
chance to go even higher.
The 35-year-old Felix
won her record 10th
Olympic track medal
Friday night at the To-
kyo Games with a push
down the home stretch
of the 400 meters to take
the bronze medal.
Felix now has more
Olympic track and fi eld
medals than any woman
in history in a career
that dates back to 2004
in Athens. She came to
Tokyo even with Ja-
maican runner Merlene
Ottey.
Her 10th medal also
ties her with the great
Carl Lewis for the most
by an American athlete.
She could break that
Saturday when she’s
expected to run in the
1,600-relay.
Shaunae Miller-Uibo
of the Bahamas won the
400 in 48.36 seconds to
defend her Olympic title.
Marileidy Paulino of
the Dominican Republic
fi nished second a full .84
seconds behind. Felix
took bronze by a mere
.15 seconds ahead of
Stephanie Ann McPher-
son of Jamaica.
It was a far less dra-
matic fi nish than in 2016
when Miller-Uibo dived
at the fi nish line to edge
out Felix for the gold.
American women
also had a good day at
the beach and on the
courts, with one Olympic
gold medal won and a
couple more set up for
the taking.
The U.S. beach vol-
leyball team of April
Ross and Alix Klineman
won gold in beach vol-
leyball and the Ameri-
can women’s basketball
and volleyball teams
won to advance to the
gold medal fi nals in both
sports.
Ross and teammate
Alix Klineman swept
Australia 21-15, 21-16
in 43 minutes. For Ross,
the gold completes a
set. She won silver in
London in 2012 and
bronze in Rio de Janeiro
in 2016. Klineman won
gold in her fi rst Olym-
pics.
“It’s kind of a fai-
rytale story like, ‘Oh,
you know I’m going at
39 to try and get my
gold medal,’ and the fact
that it actually hap-
pened feels so special
and surreal,” Ross said.
The U.S. women’s
volleyball team avenged
a gold-medal match loss
to Serbia in 2016 with
a 25-19, 25-15, 25-23
victory that sends them
back into the fi nal. The
Americans have made
three previous gold
medal fi nals, but have
never won.
“It wasn’t like, ‘Oh
we have to get redemp-
tion of this or that,’” U.S.
star Foluke Akinradewo
Gunderson said. “It was
we just want to win a
gold medal and what-
ever that’s going to take,
we’re going to do that.”
The U.S. women’s
basketball team will
play Japan in Sunday’s
fi nal after rolling over
Serbia 79-59 behind 15
points and 12 rebounds
from Brittney Griner.
Japan beat France
87-71.
STILL 1
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