American women cruise to gold in basketball

London, England (Sports Network) - For the fifth consecutive Olympics and seventh time in eight tries, the American women are gold medalists.

Candace Parker led the charge with 21 points, and Team USA used a stifling defensive strategy to run France off the court with a dominant 86-50 performance.

With male stars like Kobe Bryant looking on, the women put on a performance the men will hope to duplicate on Sunday against Spain. They held France to 30 percent shooting, only 2-of-11 from three-point range and no more than 15 points in any quarter.

Conversely, the United States' worst quarter was 17 points in the second, two more than France's most productive period of play.

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