Hoop dreams for women's teams

Liz Cambage of Australia shoots a free throw shot against Russia

Liz Cambage of Australia shoots a free throw shot against Russia during the women's Basketball preliminary round match on Day 7 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Basketball Arena.

There were wins for Australia, Turkey and the USA on Day 7 at the Basketball Arena, while France needed overtime to get the job done.

Liz Cambage scored a slam dunk to help Australia to a narrow 70-66 win against Russia in a battle of the two teams ranked joint-second in the world.

The tall Cambage powered through the lane to score with a one-handed slam in the midst of a 12-0 run early in the third quarter that gave Russia a 44-33 lead.

The 20-year-old said it was her first ever dunk in a game.

'It's good to just finally do it and get everybody off my back about it,' she said. 'It's not been in my head all the time, but I was wide open, and I felt it so I just did it.

'It was kind of an out-of-body experience. I wasn't really thinking about it, it was weird.'

It was kind of an out-of-body experience. I wasn't really thinking about it, it was weird

Cambage finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds to lead Australia, with Suzy Batkovic adding 15 and Jenna O'Hea 10.

Canada held off Brazil to advance to the quarter-finals.

Canada's victory saw them improve to 2-2, but they had to scrap for the win after making it look easy in the first half.

They led 18-8 at the end of the first quarter and 39-25 at half-time, but Brazil came back much stronger after the break and began to chip away at the lead.

The Czech Republic may have given the USA a wake-up call early on in their late-night match but got handed a lesson thereafter, as the USA enjoyed their 37th straight Olympic Games win, triumphing 88-61.

The Czechs scored the first 10 points of the game and led 26-24 at the end of the first quarter. But the USA battled back to have a double-digit lead by half-time and they then began the third quarter on a 20-3 run that killed the game.

France needed overtime to see off, Great Britain who suffered a heartwrenching 80-77 defeat.

Celine Dumerc nailed a three-pointer with six seconds left in regulation to force the extra period and then hit another almost on the overtime buzzer to win it.

France had overturned a four-point lead late in the extra period to snatch the win.

Elsewhere, Croatia got off the mark at the fourth attempt to stay in touch with a 75-56 win over Angola, while Turkey cruised to a big victory, 82-55, over China to secure a quarter-final place.

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Hoop dreams for women's teams