The Opals suffered a 79-55 loss to gold medal favourite the United States in the quarter-finals - the second-straight Olympics the Aussies have failed to reach the semi-finals.

Defeating the USA was always going to be a tough task, with the Opals' medal quest made much harder by its game one loss to Belgium and follow-up defeat to China in game two.

Those defeats came days after star centre Liz Cambage withdrew from the Games for mental health reasons.

The quarter-final clash was basically decided by quarter-time.

The Opals made a bright start to lead 5-2, before the USA took over with a stunning 19-1 run.

The Opals' offence lacked structure and penetration, while at the other end of the court they had no answer for USA star Breanna Stewart.

After averaging just 13 turnovers per game in their first three matches, the Opals turned the ball over 10 times in the first quarter alone.

From 26-12 down at quarter-time, the Opals were forced to play catch-up, which is never a good recipe against the world's best.

The Opals did cut the deficit to nine points a couple of times in the second quarter, but another big run from the USA to end the half saw the lead balloon to 21 points.

The gulf in class and depth between the two teams showed as the USA cruised to its 53rd-straight win in women's basketball.

Bendigo Spirit recruit Leilani Mitchell was the Opals' best player in the quarter-final.

Mitchell scored a team-high 14 points, including four three-pointers and dished out six assists.

Her Bendigo Spirit team-mate Tess Lavey scored three points in six minutes of game time, while Bendigo Braves guard Tess Madgen played 12 minutes in the second half and scored two points.

For the USA, Stewart was outstanding. The athletic forward scored 20 of her 23 points in the first half when the game was up for grabs.

Centre Brittney Griner scored 15 points on 6-8 shooting and pulled down a game-high eight rebounds.

"It's been a really interesting few weeks that we've had to deal with ... losing a big part of our team and trying to find our identity," Opals' coach Sandy Brondello said after the match.

"It was hard as a coach when you have a player in and the last minute taken out, especially with the limited preparation.

"Lack of preparation (hurt) and maybe a little bit of emotional energy ... it wasn't easy, I was pretty drained to be quite honest.

"Liz, she's one of the best players in the world."

Brondello's decision not to select potential offensive sparks Shyla Heal and Sami Whitcomb will also be scrutinised as they look ahead to next year's World Cup in Sydney.

But she said regardless of who played, they needed to find a way to play more ahead of their next major tournament.

"We've got really good players and it's finding the right chemistry so we can highlight the players capable of putting up big numbers for us," the coach said.

"We didn't have our offensive flow - that's not an excuse, but a reality - we didn't have any kind of preparation to play a major tournament, like all of the other teams (did)."

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