The Americans, who settled for an uncharacteristic bronze at the 2006 FIBA World Championship, hit back with a vengeance this summer by routing all of their opponents at the Beijing Games.
The USA women have now won 33 games in a row at the Olympics with gold medal wins over Australia in Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004).
The Australians, harassed by an intense American defense, never got out of first gear and shot a woeful 24% (13 of 54) inside the arc.
USA great Lisa Leslie, who didn’t play at the 2006 FIBA World Championship, returned to the national squad this year and has now joined Teresa Edwards as only the second basketball player to win four consecutive gold medals
Leslie had 14 points and seven rebounds.
Lauren Jackson, who had just six points in the first half when the USA built a 47-30 lead, said to FIBA.com: "It really hurts. I don't know what happened. I really don't know what happened to us tonight.
“We are going to talk about it after a while. It's hard, it's really hard. The Americans outclassed us today. They played a better game tonight than what we did."
Australia point guard Kristi Harrower said: "We are a much better team than this. It's devastating.
“We started well but then we made mistakes. Against a team like this, you have to play for 40 minutes. We shot the ball crap."
The USA also got a terrific performance from point guard Kara Lawson, one of the last players to make the team.
Lawson had a team-high 15 points, two assists and three rebounds in 18 minutes.
Only Belinda Snell looked like her normal self in the first half, leading the Opals with 15.
Jackson was one of five from the floor with six points and a host of others were stuck on two, including Penny Taylor – the MVP of the World Championship two years ago who missed the semi-final win over China with a sprained ankle.
Jackson finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds.
Suzy Batkovic had nine rebounds to go with her eight points but was a nightmarish three of 14 from the floor.
FIBA
