The United States marched on toward its third straight Olympic gold medal here on Monday with a well-earned 80-61 victory over the Czech Republic in a preliminary Group B match of the women's basketball.

Madariaga Valdemoro shined as she scored 22 of her 30 points in one quarter to lead Spain to its second straight win 75-67 over China (1-1).

The United States and Spain both had a 2-0 record while the reigning Olympic and world champion led Group B with better points won-loss ratio.

Coming off Saturday's 80-78 overtime loss to Spain, the Czechs started strongly against the United States as they used an 8-0 run to build a 21-13 lead late in the first quarter.

The Americans pulled within 21-18 at the end of the first quarter before storming ahead 51-35 with a 27-5 burst connecting the second and third. The Czech Republic trailed by at least 15 points in the rest of the match.

"In the beginning we just couldn't stop them, but we hung in there and came back," said U.S. head coach Van Chancellor.

Lisa Leslie led the Americans with 15 points and 10 rebounds, Tina Thompson added 12 points.

"When we started putting some defensive energy in the court, things worked out easier for us," said Leslie. "We are the best team in the world, but we have to prove it every game."

"The game was fun to watch and to play for us at the beginning, but unfortunately the U.S. continued at the same pace in the second half while we became tired and kind of slowed down," said Zuzana Klimesova, who scored game-high 18 points for the Czech Republic.

Shooting 4-for-5 from beyond the arch and 9-for-11 from the field, Valdemoro scored 22 points in the first quarter to push the Spaniards to a stunning 34-10 lead over the Asian champion.

The Chinese women surged back in the final quarter, cutting their deficit to 75-67 with 33 seconds remaining, but that was too late.

"It sounds crazy, but I do had a better first quarter when I scored 27 points in a Spanish league game," said Valdemoro, who also added six steals and three assists in 30 minutes of play.

"But it's not the same situation, because this time we are playing in the Olympics, especially with such a strong team like China," she added.

In Group A, Australia and Brazil both improved to 2-0 record with respective victories. Sydney Olympics silver medalist Australia defeated Russia (1-1) 75-56 while Brazil held off the host Greece (0-2) 87-75.

In Monday's other actions, New Zealand (1-1) beat South Korea (0-2) 81-73 for its opening win in Group B and Nigeria (0-2) lost to Japan (1-1) 79-73 in Group A.

Twelve teams are competing in two groups of the preliminaries with top four finishers from each group to qualify for the quarter-finals.

Source: Xinhua