WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Sky’s Fowles stars in 44-point U.S. rout
Seven seconds after Tuesday’s opening tipoff, Lisa Leslie scored on a power move inside.
Freeze that image. Repeat it. And you have an idea of how the U.S. women’s basketball team destroyed South Korea 104-60 to advance to Thursday’s semifinals against Russia and Becky Hammon.
The Americans’ staggering 66-28 edge in points in the paint exhibited not just an ability to follow a game plan but also this squad’s versatility. Through six victories by an average of 43.2 points, the U.S. has won with its defense one game, its transition game the next, its inside game another.
Is it any wonder that the U.S. is leading in — deep breath here — scoring offense, scoring defense, scoring margin, shooting percentage, defensive field-goal percentage, three-point shooting percentage and assists?
After a taut first quarter, the U.S. began to pull away by hammering the ball inside. Sky center Sylvia Fowles had 12 of her game-high 26 points in just 11 first-half minutes.
— K.C. Johnson, Tribune Olympics Bureau
American sails home with gold medal
SAILING: Anna Tunnicliffe spotted a wind shift to finish second in the last of 10 Laser Radial class races. That gave her enough points to win the overall title and bring the U.S. a gold medal.
U.S. remains in medal hunt
SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING: Christina Jones and Andrea Nott of the U.S. are fifth behind the Russian leaders. The final is Wednesday.
German wins gold by 5 seconds
TRIATHLON: Jan Frodeno of Germany won the men’s race by five seconds. The top American was Hunter Kemper, who finished seventh, about 55 seconds back. Jerrod Shoemaker was 18th, and Marty Reed was 32nd.
Win sets up U.S. showdown with Cuba
VOLLEYBALL: The U.S. women’s team outlasted Italy in five sets and will play undefeated Cuba in Thursday’s semifinals.
U.S. rider just misses a bronze
EQUESTRIAN: The U.S. just missed a medal in the individual dressage grand prix freestyle final. Steffen Peters, aboard Ravel, was edged for the bronze by German Heike Kemmer. American Courtney King was 13th.
2 Americans paddle into semifinals
CANOE/KAYAK: In 500-meter single kayak, Americans made the semifinals: Rami Zur in men’s and Carrie Johnson in women’s.
ALSO: The boxing highlight of the day was when light-heavyweight Dzhakhon Kurbanov of Tajikistan bit Yerkebulan Shynaliyev of Kazakhstan on the shoulder and was disqualified. The crazy thing? Evander Holyfield, he of the Mike Tyson ear-biting incident, was at the arena. … Jennie Reed of the U.S. was seventh in the cycling sprint finals. … Troy Dumais was sixth in 3-meter springboard diving.
