U.S. Women's Basketball Wins Gold
Lisa Leslie scores 14 points to cap off her illustrious Olympic career with a fourth straight gold medal, as the U.S. women's basketball team beat Australia 92-65 on Saturday night.
She joined former teammate Teresa Edwards as the only basketball players ever to win four Olympic gold medals.
Russia took the bronze, beating host China 94-81 as Becky Hammon scored 22 points.
The Australians have now lost to the Americans in the gold medal game in the past three Olympics with all three defeats coming by double-digit margins. Australia had seen this as its best shot to beat the Americans as Penny Taylor and Erin Phillips missed the first half of the WNBA season so that they could train for the Beijing Games. Lauren Jackson left the Seattle Storm two weeks before the Olympic break so she could join her teammates.
Even with their extra training and Taylor returning to the starting lineup after missing the semifinals with a sprained right ankle, the Australians just couldn't match the Americans' depth.
Kara Lawson led the U.S. with 15 points, Candace Parker added 14, and Sylvia Fowles added 13 as the American reserves outscored Australia's 59-11.
Trailing 13-10 late in the first quarter, U.S. coach Anne Donovan inserted her second unit, led by Lawson. Once again, the bench delivered just as it had throughout the Olympics with Lawson scoring the first six points of a 12-2 run to close the quarter as the U.S. took a 22-15 lead.
Then Parker, who has had a relatively quiet Olympics averaging only 8.7 points, took over. She scored eight of the Americans' 10 points to open the second quarter, including two three-point plays. On her second, the forward took the ball from the top of the key, went through her legs and drove to the basket for a layup - a play that thrilled the men's basketball players watching from the stands and even had LeBron James rising to his feet to stand on his seat.
Brazil Defeats U.S. 3-1 For Volleyball Gold
Brazil won its first gold medal in women's volleyball on Saturday, beating the U.S. 3-1 and ending an emotional run by an American team struck by tragedy hours after the opening ceremony.
The Brazilians won a tight and tense deciding set in their first Olympic final to win 25-18, 18-25, 25-13, 25-21, and blemish the return of U.S. coach Jenny Lang Ping to her hometown. Lang led the Chinese team to the gold medal in the 1984 Los Angeles Games, with a final match victory over the United States.
"We have nothing to be disappointed for," U.S. wing-spiker Logan Tom said. "You see tears; they're tears of happiness, though. We came a long way this tournament."
Brazil finished the Olympic tournament without a loss, while China beat Cuba 3-1 earlier in the day for the women's bronze medal.
The Olympics started on a tragic note for the U.S. team when the father of former U.S. player Elisabeth "Wiz" Bachman McCutcheon was fatally stabbed Aug. 9 at a popular Beijing tourist site by a man who then committed suicide. Her mother was seriously injured in the attack.
Todd Bachman was also the father-in-law of U.S. men's volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon, whose team will also face Brazil Sunday for the gold medal.
More From Beijing:
Men's Track: Jeremy Wariner ran the anchor leg as the American won the men's 1,600-meter relay in an Olympic record time. The win gave the U.S. a sweep in the men's and women's 1,600 relays. LaShawn Merritt, Angelo Taylor, David Neville and Wariner finished in 2 minutes, 55.39 seconds.
Baseball: If baseball never returns to the Olympics, the United States can say it went out a winner. The Americans defeated Japan to win the bronze medal in the final Olympic baseball game until at least 2016. South Korea upset Cuba 3-2 for the gold.
Soccer: With temperatures on the field hitting 107 degrees and the referee twice stopping play because of the heat, Argentina defeated Nigeria to win the gold medal in soccer when Angel di Maria took a pass from Lionel Messi and lobbed it over the goalkeeper.
Taekwondo: The World Taekwondo Federation recommended Cuban Angel Matos and his coach be banned from the sport for life, after Matos kicked the referee in the face following his bronze-medal match disqualification against Kazakhstan's Arman Chilmanov. Matos was declared the loser for taking too much injury time after hurting his leg. Matos angrily questioned the call, pushed a judge, then pushed and kicked referee Chakir Chelbat of Sweden. Matos then spat on the floor and was escorted out.
Doping: Ukrainian weightlifter Igor Razoronov became the sixth athlete kicked out of the Beijing Olympics for doping, testing positive for the steroid nandrolone. Another Ukrainian, Lyudmila Blonska, was stripped of her heptathlon silver medal a day earlier after testing positive for a banned steroid.
Diving: Matthew Mitcham of Australia earned four perfect 10s on his last dive to win the men's 10-meter platform and prevent China from sweeping the Olympic diving gold medals.
Boxing: Rakhim Chakhkiev of Russia has won the heavyweight boxing gold medal, avenging a loss to Italy's Clemente Russo at last year's world championships.