The only real threat to the U.S. women’s basketball team is already eliminated

The U.S. women’s basketball team’s only real threat for a sixth consecutive Olympics gold medal is no longer a problem. Australia, FIBA’s second-ranked team, fell, 73-71 in the quarterfinals to upstart Serbia, who were ranked just 14th coming into this tournament.

Despite holding a massive advantage inside with star Liz Cambage, Australia simply couldn’t take care of the ball against Serbia. The Opals turned the ball over 26 times, which the Serbians converted into 27 points off 16 steals. Serbia had no answer for Cambage, who went off for 29 points on 11-of-15 shooting, and instead geared defensive efforts towards pressuring ball-handlers into making careless mistakes. It worked.

Familiar WNBA faces took over the scoring load for Serbia. Los Angeles Sparks guard Ana Dabovic finished with 20 points and Phoenix Mercury forward Sonja Petrovic returned from a shoulder injury in the second quarter to finish with 14.

This result is great news for the Americans, as if they needed it. Though Australia lacked depth, it was the lone team with size and talent to match up to Team USA’s starters. They were the only team to finish within 15 points of the Americans in exhibition or pool play, and it was just a six-point game at halftime.

With the Aussies out, America’s three potential gold medal game opponents are Spain, who they demolished by 40, Serbia, who they crushed by 26, or Turkey, a team who lost to France (a team the U.S. also demolished) by 16. Barring a massive, massive upset, the tournament is now a competition for silver.

Cambage, the Opals 6-foot-8 center, was the only big capable of giving Brittney Griner any sort of struggle on the interior and test the rest of America’s bigs. Penny Taylor would’ve had a final shot at Olympic redemption against long-time Mercury teammate Diana Taurasi before retiring at the end of the season. Instead both Cambage and Taylor will walk away in shock as their team will miss the podium for the first time since 1992.

Serbia will play the winner of Spain vs. Turkey in the semifinals and the lucky winner of that one will likely get pummeled by Team USA in the final. Any hope that someone could upset the United States is essentially gone with Australia’s shocking elimination.