Olympics women’s basketball results: Semifinals – August 18

2016 Rio Olympics women’s basketball results from the two semifinal matchups played on Thursday, August 18

After almost two weeks of action at the 2016 Rio Olympics, the Olympics women’s basketball tournament is finally on the verge of coming to a close. Before it can officially subside and the medals can be handed out, though, the two semifinal matchups had to be played on Thursday, August 18. With Spain taking on Serbia and then Team USA facing off with France, the drama was virtually inevitable.

Serbia pulled off the biggest Olympics women’s basketball tournament in the quarterfinals, knocking off one of the silver medal contenders in Australia. However, they were up against another silver contender in Spain in this matchup searching for magic. It came up all muggles for the Serbs, though. Spain jumped out to an early 20-9 lead in the first quarter and then just maintained their distance. Laura Nicholls was huge for them once again, notching 13 points and 12 rebounds and leading the way to a 68-54 victory and a spot in the gold medal game.

Playing for the right to face Spain for said gold medal was Team USA and France in a rematch of the 2012 gold medal game. France needed to ugly the game up and slow down the pace to stay close and that’s exactly what they were able to do. Capitalizing on some great defense at the end of the second quarter, France trailed by only four points going into halftime. Of course, Team USA again turned up the defensive intensity coming out of the half and France never stood a chance. Behind the efforts of the usual suspects in Maya Moore and Diana Taurasi, the Americans outscored France 25-8 in the third quarter and held on for the 86-67 victory.

Now only the medal games remain, which will be played on Saturday, August 19. It’ll be Serbia vs France for the bronze medal and USA vs Spain for the gold.