North Syracuse native Breanna Stewart scored a game-high 23 points for the United States women’s basketball team, leading Team USA to a 79-55 win over Australia in the Olympic quarterfinals.
Stewart delivered a stellar shooting performance, knocking down 8 of her 10 shots. She also chipped in five rebounds, three steals and two blocks.
The United States had lost to Australia in an exhibition game prior to the Olympics, but their opponents played that game with star Liz Cambage, who pulled out of the Olympics due to mental health concerns.
Given the loss in the previous outing, the performance by the Americans was vintage Stewart who, even as a high school player in Central New York, was known for taking losses hard and coming back with ferocity.
With the win, the 53rd straight in the Olympics for the United States, Team USA moved two wins away from a seventh consecutive gold medal in women’s basketball. The United States will face Serbia in the semifinals at 12:40 a.m. on Friday, with the winner advancing to the gold-medal game.
In other Olympic competition, Cornell’s Rudy Winkler finished seventh in the hammer throw with a throw of 77.08 meters. That was 5 1/2 meters behind the gold-medal winner, Poland’s Wojciech Nowicki and 4 1/2 meters behind behind bronze-medal winner Paweł Fajdek, also of Poland.
Former Fayetteville-Manlius swimmer Ashley Twichell finished in seventh place in the 10-kilomter swim marathon on Tuesday afternoon. Twichell said before the Olympics that she expects to retire from the highest tier of competitive swimming after the Games.
Upcoming schedule:
Former Lansing High School and Cornell wrestler Kyle Dake will wrestle his first match in the 74-kilogram competition at around 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday, with another to follow at 5 a.m. on Thursday. His matches can be streamed at NBCOlympics.com.
Former Syracuse basketball player Jerami Grant and the United States men’s basketball team will compete in the semifinals against Australia at 12:15 a.m. on Thursday. The game will be streamed on Peacock and NBCOlympics.com.
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Breanna Stewart after U.S. women’s basketball shocking loss to Australia: We’ll get better