AP
US players celebrate after winning the gold against Australia yesterday.

BEIJING (AP):

LISA LESLIE capped off her illustrious Olympic career with a fourth straight gold medal, scoring 14 points in a 92-65 victory over Australia yesterday.

She joined former teammate Teresa Edwards as the only basketball players ever to win four Olympic gold medals.

Russia took the bronze, beating hosts China 94-81 as Becky Hammon scored 22 points.

The Australians have now lost to the Americans in the gold medal game in the last three Olympics with all three defeats coming by double-digit margins.

Australia had seen this as their best shot to beat the Americans as Penny Taylor and Erin Phillips missed the first half of the WNBA season so that they could train for the Beijing Games. Lauren Jackson left the Seattle Storm two weeks before the Olympic break so she could join her teammates.

Even with their extra training and Taylor returning to the starting line-up after missing the semi-finals with a sprained right ankle, the Australians just couldn't match the Americans' depth.

Inserted second unit

Kara Lawson led the US with 15 points, Candace Parker added 14, and Sylvia Fowles added 13 as the American reserves outscored Australia's 59-11.

Trailing 13-10 late in the first quarter, US coach Anne Donovan inserted her second unit, led by Lawson. Once again, the bench delivered just as it had throughout the Olympics with Lawson scoring the first six points of a 12-2 run to close the quarter as the US took a 22-15 lead.

Then Parker, who has had a relatively quiet Olympics averaging only 8.7 points, took over. She scored eight of the Americans' 10 points to open the second quarter, including two three-point plays.

On her second, the forward took the ball from the top of the key, went through her legs and drove to the basket for a layup - a play that thrilled the men's basketball players watching from the stands and even had LeBron James rising to stand on his seat.