Taurasi leads US over Australia at women's worlds

OSTRAVA, Czech Republic (AP) - The United States coasted through the first two rounds of the women's basketball world championship. The stakes get a bit higher from here on.

Diana Taurasi scored 24 points Wednesday to help the Americans earn the top seed in the quarterfinals with an 83-75 victory over defending champion Australia.

The U.S. went 6-0 in its preliminary group and didn't need to go unbeaten to advance, but now a single loss would end the Americans' goal of reclaiming the gold.

“There is a sense of urgency, every game is very important,” said Taurasi. “We faced this in Brazil and hopefully we can go back to that. Now you got to win them all.”

The game between the U.S. and Australia was one of the rare instances when the two basketball powerhouses met in the tournament before the medal round - the last time was in 1994. If there is another meeting this year, it wouldn't come until the gold medal game Sunday.

The U.S. appeared in control and built an 18-point halftime lead before 6-foot-8 Australian center Liz Cambage, who finished with 18 points, took the game over in the second half.

“My guess is that we need to go back and find out how it got the way it did in the first half and why it was the way it was in the second half,” U.S. coach Geno Auriemma said.

Unlike the 2008 Olympic gold medal game, when the Americans jumped out to a 17-point halftime lead and coasted to a 92-65 win, Australia battled back by outscoring the U.S. 42-32 after the break.

“It was just a tale of two halves for us,” said Taurasi. “We played pretty well in the first half, the second half they played pretty well. We came up with more plays.”

Now the two teams will travel to Karlovy Vary for the Friday's quarterfinals. The Americans take on South Korea.

“I don't think there are any easy games in the next three,” Auriemma said. “You lose and you go home. No matchup is an easy matchup. I don't know that South Korea is an easy matchup. Their style of play and our style of play is completely different. We'll go from there.”

Australia will have to go through the host Czech Republic and Russia to get back to the gold medal game.

“It's going to be a fun atmosphere in there going up against the host team,” Australia's Penny Taylor said. “We'll just have to play well.”

The Americans improved to 9-0 against Australia at the worlds.

“Any game with them is a big game,” Australia coach Carrie Graf said. “The emotional effect to get up to play great opponents. It's great practice for quarterfinal play, semifinal play, gold medal play.”

In the other quarterfinal matchups Friday, Russia will face Belarus and France takes on Spain.