The United States advanced to the Olympic men's basketball semifinals with a 116-85 victory Wednesday over Australia. Kobe Bryant scored 25 points in his best game of the Olympics and LeBron James added 16 on Wednesday for the Americans. The US will face defending gold medalist Argentina or Greece on Friday in the semifinals. The Americans pulled away late in the second quarter and blew it open early in the third to move two wins from their first gold medal since 2000. Patrick Mills had 20 points for Australia. Showing no fear of the Americans, the Australians delivered hard fouls and attacked the basket instead of settling for jump shots. It trailed by just a point after a quarter and five more than halfway through the second - and would have been closer if not for missing four easy shots in the half. In the end, though, the Australians were worn down by relentless pressure from the US. “I think they're going to be very, very, very tough to beat,” Australia coach Brian Goorjian said. Earlier, Pau Gasol scored 20 points to lead world champion Spain to a 72-59 win over Croatia. Lithuania, bronze medalists at the 2000 Sydney games, meanwhile, eliminated the host in their quarterfinal, beating China 94-68. Lithuania plays Spain in another semifinal Friday. Felipe Reyes scored 13 points for Spain, while Toronto Raptors point guard Jose Calderon added 10. Gasol, who plays with the Los Angeles Lakers, shot 73 percent from field throw range and grabbed a game-leading 10 rebounds. Marko Banic had 15 points to lead Croatia, which as a team hit just 38 percent of its field goals. The loss ended what had been a remarkable return to form for the world 20th-ranked Croatians, who had gone 3-2 in pool play. Spain has one loss in this tournament, to the United States. The Spaniards got off to a strong start in the first quarter with a lightening 12-1 run. Croatia battled to within 10 points at the beginning of the fourth, only to have Spain run up another 10 unanswered points. – AP __
