BEIJING — Former LSU All-Americans Seimone Augustus and Sylvia Fowles combined for 20 points as the United States women’s basketball team finished Olympic preliminary play undefeated with a 96-60 win over New Zealand on Sunday night at Wukesong Arena.
Augustus matched her tournament high in points with 12 on 6-of-8 shooting from the field. Fowles scored eight points and pulled down six rebounds in 20 minutes of action. Tina Thompson led all scorers with 15 points.
“The experience has been awesome, and it’s more than I could have ever imagined,” Fowles said. “It’s everything that I expected and I think our team got off to a good start and we’re going to get better every day. It’s going to get tougher once we start playing the medal round game.”
“I just come out and play to the best of my abilities every night. I remember my first two games I got out to good start and then I’ve been on cruise control should I say, the coach says. I’ve got to regroup, come back and make sure I’m on point for the medal round games.”
The Americans (5-0), who won their 30th straight Olympic contest, overpowered New Zealand (1-4) in the second quarter. A five-point U.S. advantage quickly turned into a 50-24 halftime lead after the Americans put together a 21-0 run during the period. Augustus started the run when she drained a baseline jumper. New Zealand managed only six points in the second quarter.
Augustus gave the U.S. its biggest lead ? 39 points ? with a bucket at the 2:40 mark in the fourth quarter, and the Americans maintained a 30-point advantage until the final horn sounded.
Team USA dominated the boards, outrebounding New Zealand 36-27, and scoring 40 of its 96 points in the paint. New Zealand was forced into 21 turnovers.
The USA, which emerged from Group B with the No. 1 seed, opens medal round quarterfinal play at 7 a.m. CDT on Wednesday, Aug. 19 against South Korea (2-3), the No. 4 seed from Group A. The game will be televised live by USA Network and the NBC Basketball Channel.
Behind No. 1 USA, China earned Group B’s No. 2 seed for the medal round, followed by No. 3 Spain and No. 4 Czech Republic; while No. 5 New Zealand and No. 6 Mali will not advance.