The Americans cruised into the quarterfinals after routing China 105-62 Sunday, finishing women's basketball group play undefeated and unchallenged.
Tina Charles scored 12 of her 18 points in the first quarter, and the U.S. easily wrapped up its 46th straight win in its quest for a sixth consecutive gold medal. The Americans (5-0) are on a record scoring pace and topped 100 points for the fourth time in five games.
The U.S. has not lost to China in eight games in the Olympics. Charles outscored the Chinese by herself in the first quarter as the U.S. raced out to a 32-9 lead.
Brittney Griner added 18 points and 13 rebounds. The only issue for the U.S. was Elena Delle Donne not playing after being accidently poked in the eye during warmups by Tamika Catchings.
Diana Taurasi, who has proven once again to be one of the best women’s basketball players of all-time in the tournament, scored a six points, both on three-pointers, moving within six triples of tying the women’s Olympic record for most three-pointers in a single tournament. She previously set the mark for most threes by a U.S. women’s basketball player in the Olympics.
As they head to the knockout round, Taurasi, Sue Bird and Tamika Catchings seem to be well on their way to a record-tying fourth Olympic gold medal.
With the victory, the U.S. has won 46 straight games in Olympic play and move to 62-3 all-time in the Games. They’re last loss was in 1992. The win was the fourth time the U.S. has scored over 100 points in the tournament thus far.
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Elena Delle Donne did not play in the game after receiving an inadvertent elbow from a teammate during warmups.
They finish the group phase as the top team in Group B and will play Japan, the fourth seed in Group A, on Tuesday at 10 am ET.
China (1-4) will not advance, losing a tiebreak to Serbia. Mengran Sun had a team-high 16 points.
