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U.S. eases into semifinals

BEIJING: The United States advanced to the men’s basketball semifinals with a 116-85 victory over Australia here on Wednesday.

Kobe Bryant scored 25 points in his best game of the Olympics and LeBron James added 16 for the Americans. The Americans pulled away late in the second quarter and never looked back.

Patrick Mills had 20 points for Australia.

No fear

Showing no fear of the Americans, the Australians delivered hard fouls and attacked the basket instead of settling for jump shots.

They trailed by just a point after a quarter and five more than halfway through the second — and would have been closer if not for missing four easy shots in the half.

In the end, though, the Australians were worn down by relentless pressure from the U.S.

“I think they’re going to be very, very tough to beat,” Australia coach Brian Goorjian said.

Earlier, Paul Gasol scored 20 points to lead world champion Spain to a 72-59 win over Croatia.

Lithuania, bronze medallist at the 2000 Sydney Games, eliminated China in the quarterfinal by a 94-68 scoreline. Lithuania plays Spain in the semifinals on Friday.

Felipe Reyes had 13 points for Spain, while Toronto Raptors point guard Jose Calderon added 10. Gasol, who plays for Los Angeles Lakers, shot 73 per cent from field throw range and grabbed a game-leading 10 rebounds.

Marko Banic had 15 points to lead Croatia, which as a team hit just 38 per cent of its field goals.

The loss ended what had been a remarkable return to form for the world 20th-ranked Croatians, who had gone 3-2 in pool play. Spain has one loss in this tournament, to the United States.

The Spaniards got off to a strong start in the first quarter with a lightening 12-1 run. Croatia battled to within 10 points at the beginning of the fourth, only to have Spain run up another 10 unanswered points.

In what may have been China’s final game with coach Jonas Kazlauskas at the helm, Sarunas Jasikevicius scored 23 points to lead Lithuania, while Houston Rockets centre Yao Ming had 19 for China.

The score remained close into the third quarter, but the Lithuanian shooters soon began knocking down three-pointers to take the game away. At that stage, Yao, who scored 11 of his 19 points from the free throw line, appeared exhausted.

The result matches China’s best-ever finish in an Olympic basketball tournament, setting the stage for a major rebuilding effort ahead of qualifying for the 2012 London Games.

Happy and sad

“I’m really happy, but also a little sad about our result,” said Yao, who battled back from a season-ending foot injury in the spring to be fit for the home games.

“We were determined to fight, but were limited by our capabilities.” — Agencies

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