Australia 79 Czech Republic 46
FOR the Australian Opals, the Olympic competition is a little like Michael Phelps's assault on swimming history.
It all comes down to a final event to determine whether history can be made. For Phelps it was the eighth gold medal last Sunday afternoon, for the Opals it will be the gold medal game, likely to be against the United States on Saturday night, and whether they can finally break their duck and win Olympic gold.
But, just like Phelps, they have to go through all the small steps to get to the big one.
Last night at the Beijing Olympic Basketball Stadium, another step was taken when they defeated the Czech Republic 79-46 to move into the semi-finals, and one step closer to their much anticipated clash with the Americans.
But, the step came at a cost and just how expensive it is remains to be seen, after star forward Penny Taylor was carried from the court after injuring her right ankle.
The extent of the injury was not immediately known, but tears flowed as Taylor sat on the bench with her foot in a bucket of ice, and being attended to by the Opals medical staff.
Having overcome the Czechs, the team now have one slightly larger leap to make into the gold medal game. They will encounter a jammed-packed, boisterous gym tomorrow when they face host nation China, and their task will be that much more difficult if Taylor is unable to take her place in the starting five. It would also make the job of beating the US for gold, even more improbable.
The Chinese moved into the medal rounds yesterday when they comfortably accounted for Belarus 77-62.
And the Chinese do have a fair bit of inside knowledge when it comes to the Opals. They are coached by Australian Tom Maher, and he is assisted by Opals stalwart Michele Timms.
After leading the Opals to their first Olympic medal, a bronze in 1996, in Sydney in 2000 Maher took the Opals to a silver medal, losing the final to the USA, 76-54. Timms was his captain in that side, and while most of the faces have changed - Lauren Jackson and Kristi Harrower are the only players from that team still around today - the pair know all about several Australian stars.
Four years later Maher took the New Zealand women's team to the Olympics and helped them to their best-ever performance of eighth. The Opals, prepared by coach Jan Stirling, again had to be content with silver, going down again to the United States 74-63.
Stirling was hoping for a solid hit-out against the Czechs and she would have been reasonably pleased with the performance - apart from Taylor's injury - although aware they need to step up again against the better teams such as China and the United States.
A combination of some poor shooting from the Czech Republic and some solid defence from the Opals saw the game quickly blow out in the opening term.
The Czechs missed with their first nine shots, and while they weren't being punished on the scoreboard as the Australians repeatedly turned the ball over, but the signs were not good as you sensed Stirling would get her team back on track quickly.
She did and by the first break, the Opals were cruising with a 13-point lead, 23-10.
The clamps were put even tighter on the Czechs in the second term, and amazingly they had scored just two points in the first nine minutes of the period. They eventually added another five to take their overall tally to 17, but the Opals were off and gone, and led by 21 at half-time, 38-17.
The second half should have been about more of the same, but less than a minute after the resumption, Taylor was fouled under the basket, and as she landed, she rolled her right ankle.
The injury aside, everything else went to plan, Stirling was able to rest her starters and run the bench for a large chunk of the rest of the game.
By three-quarter time the lead was out to 34 points, 61-27, and only the final margin was left to be determined.
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