Good as gold: US women win 6th straight Olympic hoops title

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The dominant U.S. women's basketball team won a sixth consecutive Olympic gold medal in impressive fashion, routing Spain 101-72 on Saturday.

Diana Taurasi and the Americans played nearly flawless basketball in Rio, and were never challenged. They have won 49 consecutive games in the Olympics with only one of those decided by single digits.

With that kind of sustained success, no one wants to say this is the best women's basketball team ever assembled. They won by nearly 40 points a game, but fell short of the record 102.4 points the 1996 team averaged. But if they aren't the best, they're close.

The U.S., which beat Spain by 40 in a preliminary round game, got off to a slow start and only led 21-17 after the first quarter. Then the Americans got going with a 16-3 run in the second that blew the game open and the rout and celebration was on.