After only playing two minutes in the game one loss to Belgium and not seeing any court time in the loss to China in game two, Lavey played 19 minutes in Monday night's amazing win over Puerto Rico.

The Opals went into the match knowing they had to win by at least 25 points to advance to the quarter-finals.

At half-time that equation looked unlikely when the Opals led by just one point.

However, the Aussies produced their best basketball of the tournament in the second-half to scape into the quarters on the back of a 96-69 win.

Lavey's impact on the match was far greater than her stat line of three points, one rebound and three assists suggests.

Her energy at the offensive and defensive ends was vital and in the 19 minutes she was on court the Opals outscored Puerto Rico by 26 points.

The hero for the Opals was Mariana Tolo, who came off the bench to top score with 26 points plus 17 rebounds, four assists and one steal.

"I'm just so proud of how we fought tonight. We didn't come out and start how we wanted to, even to just fight back in that second half and really take control of the game was unbelievable,'' Tole said.

"Credit to Puerto Rico, they played hard the whole game. They came here and unfortunately didn't get a win but you could tell they really wanted one tonight.

"For us, we were a bit bigger than them and we took advantage of that which meant coming inside to me, Cayla (George) and Ezi (Magbegor) and I think that was the difference in the game.

"It's a fresh start now, we're into the quarter-finals and anything can happen."

The Opals now face gold medal favourite the United States in a quarter-final clash on Wednesday at 2.40pm (AEST).

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: