BEIJING (AP):

SYLVIA FOWLES scored 26 points and grabbed 14 rebounds Tuesday to lead the United States women's basketball team to a 104-60 rout of South Korea and an Olympic semi-final berth.

It's the sixth straight Olympics that the Americans have advanced to the medal round.

The only time they didn't qualify for the semis in the history of women's basketball was in 1980 and that's because the US boycotted the Moscow Games.

The Americans will face Russia in one semi-final tomorrow and China play Australia in the other.

Tatiana Shchegoleva scored 19 points as Russia beat Spain 84-65 in a late quarter-final.

Straight games

Earlier, Lauren Jackson had 17 points and 12 rebounds to help Australia rout the Czech Republic 79-46 and Miao Lijie had 28 points to lead China past Belarus 77-62.

The US have now won 31 straight games since losing to the Unified team in the semi-finals of the 1992 Olympics. The Americans were 5-0 in their pool, winning by an average of 43 points.

Yesterday, South Korea held tough for the first quarter behind hot shooting. They were 9-for-16 (59 per cent) from the field in the period and only were down 25-21 at the end of the period.

Fowles and the US then took over dominating the paint.

She was a force on both ends of the floor, giving the Americans second and third attempts with offensive rebounds.

On the defensive end, she was blocking shots.