BEIJING • Reminded about her last trip to the Chinese capital, Sylvia Fowles grimaced like a little girl who just had her lunch money stolen by a bully.

“You never forget,” she said of the 84-81 loss the U.S. women’s basketball team suffered against China in April inthe championship game of a pre-Olympic tournament. “That feeling we felt is a feeling I never want to feel again.”

The U.S. returned the favor Monday for its second straight win of the Beijing Games, plummeting China 108-63 with dominating post play, hot perimeter shooting and a newfound defensive presence.

China had 11,083 screaming fans but no answer for Tina Thompson, who scored a game-high 27 points, including 13 in a 23-0 run to close the first quarter that gave the top-seeded Americans a 33-11 lead.

Fowles notched 18 points, 12 in the second half, when the U.S. went in cruise control after pulling ahead 61-27 at intermission. Candace Parker scored 12 points and Lisa Leslie had 10 as the U.S. shot 56.8 percent, outscored No. 10 China 72-26 in the paint and forced 18 turnovers.

“It’s important for us to get better,” said Leslie, gunning for her fourth Olympic gold medal. “We have to stay focused. It’s that one game where you’re not shooting well that it catches up to you.”

That one game probably won’t surface in a mediocre Olympic pool. The U.S. beat No. 9 Czech Republic by 40 points Saturday, and its remaining games are against No. 5 Spain, No. 16 New Zealand and No. 31 Mali.

The Americans are riding a 27-game Olympic winning streak, having not lost in the Summer Games since 1992 in Barcelona, Spain. They’re 44-3 all-time in the Olympics, with five gold medals, a silver and a bronze.

This team might be the most talented of the bunch.

Coach Anne Donovan has plenty of size up front in Leslie and Thompson. Katie Smith and Diana Taurasi help stabilize the offense. And Fowles, Parker and Seimone Augustus provide unmatched playmaking ability.

“We were overwhelmed,” said Chinese coach Tom Maher, whose team shot 34.9 percent. “They’re too good for us. When they play like that, they’re a class above us. They deserved to win by that margin.”

Smith called a pressuring defense “one of our calling cards,” often overshadowed, considering the Americans averaged 99.4 points in winning the 2007 FIBA Americas Championship.

“Our defense translates into offense, so we get a lot of easy buckets,” Parker said. “Teams don’t figure out what that pressure is like until they get on the floor with us.”Unlike Fowles, Smith hasn’t thought about the April defeat to China.

“This is where it counts,” she said. “This is why we came. This is what it’s all about.”-CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0256 or brian.gomez@gazettedev.gazette.com. Check out our Olympics blog at gazetteolympics.freedomblogging.com

Olivia Christensen, left, and Katie Ehrlich tried out their locker combinations Sunday during the Palmer Ridge High School dedication and open house. Residents voted for the tax bond on the $46 million building in 2006. Photo by