The United States will play for gold medals in men’s basketball and baseball after semifinal wins Thursday at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant had 23 points on 10-of-19 shooting to go with a game-high nine rebounds for the United States as they turned a close game into a 97-78 rout of Australia. The Phoenix Suns’ Devin Booker contributed 20 points, hitting three of five attempts from 3-point range, and some top-quality defense as Team USA.
The Americans will vie for the championship on Friday at 10:30 p.m. ET against France, which edged Slovenia 90-89 in the other semifinal.
On the baseball diamond, the U.S. scored five runs in the sixth inning on the way to a 7-2 victory over South Korea. Tyler Austin and Jack Lopez each were 2-for-4 with two RBIs each.
Manager Mike Scioscia’s team will face Japan for the gold medal Saturday at 6 a.m. ET.
The U.S. is assured of two more medals — either gold or silver — in those games.
Through 13 days of competition, the United States leads the medal table with 91, followed by China (74), Russia Olympic Committee (58), Great Britain (51) and Japan (46). The United States also narrowed the gap in gold medals, now trailing China, which has 34, by five. Japan follows with 22, while Australia has 17. ROC and Great Britain are tied for fifth with 16 each.
In other Olympics action:
–Megan Rapinoe and Carli Lloyd each scored two goals and the U.S. Women’s National Team captured the Olympic bronze medal with a 4-3 defeat of Australia. Lloyd scored in first-half stoppage time and in the 51st minute to raise her Olympic total to 10 goals, passing Abby Wambach for the most in team history. Sweden plays Canada for the gold medal on Friday.
–Nelly Korda tied an Olympic record with a 9-under-par 62 to take a four-shot lead into the third round in the women’s golf competition. The 23-year-old American moved to 13-under with nine birdies, one eagle and a double bogey at the par-4 18th, matching the 62 carded by Russia’s Maria Verchenova in the final round at the 2016 Rio Games. Denmark’s Nanna Koerstz Madsen (64) and Emily Kristine Pedersen (63) and India’s Aditi Ashok (66) are tied for second at 9-under 133. Sweden’s Madelene Sagstrom (68) is in solo fifth place at 8-under.
–Ryan Crouser of Oregon set an Olympic record three times during the men’s shot put final on his way to his second consecutive gold medal. His 23.30-meter (76 feet, 5 1/2 inches) throw topped fellow American Joe Kovacs’ toss of 22.65m, who won the silver medal. New Zealand’s Tom Walsh was third at 22.47m. The trio finished in the same order at the 2016 Rio Olympics, marking the first time in Olympics history that three finishers repeated the same order in the same event in consecutive Games.
–Team USA won three medals in wrestling. David Morris Taylor III scored a narrow victory over Hassan Yazdani Charati of Iran in the gold-medal match of 86-kilogram weight class. Helen Louise Maroulis defeated Khongorzul Boldsaikhan of Mongolia in the women’s 57kg bout to win the bronze medal. Her male American counterpart in the same event, Thomas Patrick Gilman, beat Reza Atrinagharchi for bronze.
–Nevin Harrison of Seattle won the gold medal in 200-meter sprint canoe with a time of 45.932 seconds. It was the inaugural race for the event as an Olympic sport.
–Albert Batyrgaziev of ROC took a 3-2 decision over Duke Ragan of Cincinnati to win the gold medal in men’s featherweight boxing.
–Katie Nageotte won the women’s pole vault in unexpected fashion as the American cleared 4.90 meters – just over 16 feet – on her third attempt. World champion Anzhelika Sidorova of ROC won the silver medal and Holly Bradshaw of Great Britain the bronze.
–Field Level Media