Preview >> USA Women Take On Rival Australia In Semifinals

The last time the USA women played Australia, the USA won 83-75 in the second round of the 2010 FIBA World Championship, but the two programs have a definite rivalry.

In fact, the two teams have met in the gold medal game of the 2008, 2004 and 2000 Olympic Games, all of which were won by the USA.

Get ready for Thursday's semifinal with our preview.

• Game Notes

Scouting Report:

Doug Bruno (USA assistant coach, DePaul University head coach)
We have played Australia many times before in world championships and the Olympics, but they are a different team each year, and we are too. What are some of their strengths this year?
Their inside game is their strength and their overall size. Lauren Jackson is one of greatest players in the world, and she can play with her back to the basket or facing the basket, and Liz Camabage is becoming one of the best bigs in basketball. So, that is going to be a tough matchup for us. They also rotate four players through the inside - (Abby) Bishop and (Suzy) Batkovic are also very good. So, we are going to have our hands full.

Where can we attack them?
We need for our post players to be ready to defend and to attack them on the offensive side as well.

Do you think maybe they match up better against us than any other team in the tournament does?
On the interior, you could say they actually have an advantage over us based on their height.

What are some of the keys to the game?
We finally got off to a quick start against Canada for the first time of this whole trip, and that will be important for us to start strong again against Australia as well. I also think we need to get into them defensively and take away some of their passing lanes. Maybe most important, we need to rebound the ball. We can't give them second chances.