U.S. fights off Russia in basketball

BEIJING, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Diana Taurasi scored 21 points Thursday and the United States pulled away in the second half of the Olympic semifinals and downed Russia 67-52.

The Americans will try for their fourth consecutive Olympic basketball gold medal Saturday when they take on Australia, a 90-56 winner over China in the other semifinal. Australia has lost to the United States in the last two gold medal games.

The United States trailed by 1 point after one period and fell behind by 7 in the second quarter. A 12-2 run got the Americans in front, en route to a 1-point lead at the break. A 33-percent shooting night created most of the problems.

Russia scored the first 6 points of the second half to regain the lead, after which the United States scored 12 straight. The Americans had at least a 10-point lead for almost all of the fourth quarter.

"We were rushing things," said Taurasi. "We found our rhythm once we started to slow things down."

Sylvia Fowles added 8 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. The Americans outrebounded the Russians 52-33.

Russia held the Americans to 32 fewer points than their tournament average through the first six games, but was hurt by poor long-range shooting. The Russians made just one of 14 tries from 3-point range.