Rio Olympics: U.S. women's basketball wins gold with dominating victory over Spain

The U.S. women's basketball team has won six straight gold medals

By Ananth Pandian

Aug 20, 2016 at 4:34 pm ET • 1 min read

The USA women's basketball team continued its long and historic dominance over the rest of the world on Saturday with a 101-72 blowout victory over Spain to win the gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.

Team USA started off a little slow, missing five free throws and were leading by just four points after the first quarter. But by playing stingy defense and led by Diana Taurasi and Maya Moore, Team USA went on a 20-8 run in the second to end the first half up by 17 points. They never looked back, pouring it on in the third and then coasting in the fourth to win by 29 points.

Things to know

Unbeatable since '92: Having now won 49 straight games since their bronze-medal finish at the 1992 Olympics, the USA Basketball women's team is the most dominant U.S. Olympic team of all-time. The U.S. women have now won six straight Olympic gold medals, a feat that in only group sports, just the U.S. men's basketball team and Indian men's field hockey have achieved.

Make it 🏅🏅🏅🏅🏅🏅 straight for @usabasketball's #USABWNT! #TeamUSA
— WNBA (@WNBA) August 20, 2016

The four-time Olympic trio: Similar to the men's team, the women's U.S. basketball team has a star-filled roster. But unlike the men's team, the women's team has plenty of Olympic experience as Sue Bird, Tamika Catchings and Diana Taurasi have played in four straight Olympics for Team USA. The trio are now winners of four gold medals as well. But a fifth gold is not in the cards as the 2016 Games will be the last Olympic experience for Bird, Catchings and Taurasi.

That makes FOUR Olympic #Gold medals for these legends!

Congrats @S10Bird, @Catchin24, and @DianaTaurasi! 🏀 pic.twitter.com/okKiAZK283
— U.S. Olympic Team (@TeamUSA) August 20, 2016

None better than Taurasi from behind the arc:

Taurasi is the now the best three-point shooter in Olympic history. Already the American record holder for most threes in a single game with six, Taurasi knocked down five three-pointers against Spain to extend her record for the most career Olympic three-point makes with 71. And with 32 made three-pointers at this summer's Olympics, Taurasi now also has the record for most threes in a single Olympic games.

NBA players took in the dominance: NBA players like LeBron James and the legendary Kobe Bryant, tuned in to watch the U.S. women's team win gold: