U.S. men rally past Australia, will play for basketball gold

The U.S. men's basketball team turned a close game into a 97-78 rout of Australia on Thursday to advance to the gold-medal game at the Olympics in Saitama, Japan.

The Americans will vie for the championship on Friday at 10:30 p.m. ET against the winner of Thursday's Slovenia-France game.

Team USA prevailed thanks to a 48-14 run over the second and third quarters, rebounding from a slow start that saw them trail 41-26.