RIO DE JANEIRO — Nico Hernandez thinks of the friend he views of as a brother before every fight, before the opening bell rings.

Toney Losey died at 22 two years ago, in a factory accident, and Hernandez believes Losey is watching him during these Olympics. Hernandez planned for them to be boxing together in Rio and, in that way, they are. When Hernandez fights, he carries Losey into the ring with him.

Hernandez, 20, a light flyweight from Wichita, Kansas, has at least one more match left. Wednesday evening, Hernandez beat Carlos Eduardo Quipo Pilataxi of Ecuador in the 49-kilogram quarterfinals, continuing his improbable run and clinching the United States’ first boxing medal since 2008.

Hernandez may be too young to appreciate the importance of a medal, which he is guaranteed to win because boxing awards two bronze medals rather than staging a third-place match. But he knew what his victory meant to him. Losey, his friend, trained with him and had aspirations to box in Rio before a tank fell on him at work inside a steel fabricator.

“It’s always with me,” Hernandez said. “My brother, I really thought he would be here with me. He’s not, but I know he’s with me here in spirit. I know he’s happy up there. I know he’s smiling right now.”

Hernandez reached the quarterfinals only after a stunning upset of Russian Vasilii Egorov, the tournament’s No. 2 seed. Neither his underdog status nor USA Boxing’s recent history deterred him.

“The top guys are meant to be beaten,” Hernandez said. “That’s what I’m here for: to get my spot up there and beat them. I just thank God I’m here.”

Also Wednesday:

Basketball

U.S. men 98, Australia 88: Carmelo Anthony scored 31 points on the night he became the U.S. men’s Olympic career scoring leader, combining with Kyrie Irving for all the Americans’ baskets in the fourth quarter of a 98-88 victory over Australia on Wednesday night. Irving — born in Australia — added 19 points, including a 3-pointer with 1:35 left after Australia had closed within four.

U.S. women 110, Serbia 84: Diana Taurasi scored 22 of her Olympics-best 25 points in the first half to lead the United States. Serbia came shooting well from behind the arc and led 17-16 — the latest the Americans have trailed in the Olympics — before Taurasi scored nine points, including two 3-pointers, during a 15-4 run to close the first quarter.

Diving

Chinese lose for 1st time; Americans win silver: Britain upset China to win the men’s synchronized 3-meter springboard, with Jack Laugher and Chris Mears totaling 454.32 points to end the Chinese hopes for a sweep in diving competitions. American duo Sam Dorman and Mike Hixon took silver with 450.21 on a drizzly day over a green pool. Dorman and Hixon saved their best for last, earning the highest score of the competition (98.04) on their last dive — a risky 4½-somersault. “Scott Donie (1992 Olympic silver medalist) told us a great thing; he said, ‘Pray for rain,’” Dorman said. “And today we got that. Both of us were actually very excited that the weather was bad. I train in Miami, so I’m used to training in bad weather.”

Fencing

American picks up silver: Third-ranked Aron Szilagyi of Hungary beat upstart U.S. fencer Daryl Homer 15-8 to win gold in men’s sabre. Despite the loss, Homer earned the second silver medal for the American men’s fencing team in Rio, joining Stanford’s Alexander Massialas. “We’re trying to raise the visibility of the sport,” Homer said. “We are very competitive with each other, and it’s great. I love that.” Homer’s impressive final touch gave him a thrilling 15-14 victory over Iran’s Mojtaba Abedini in the semifinals and put him within a win of the first gold for the U.S. men in the modern era.

Rugby

Fiji 24, United States 19: U.S. captain Maddison Hughes missed a last-second conversion attempt that would have put the Americans in the quarterfinals at the expense of 12-time world series champion New Zealand. The Americans needed to stay within four points of Fiji in the last group-stage game to advance. Nate Ebner, whose day job is playing safety and special teams for the New England Patriots, set up the kick by running almost half the length of the field with world champion Fijian players in pursuit and scored with a minute to go.

Soccer

Brazil 4, Denmark 0: Brazil finally found its scoring touch and advanced to the quarterfinals, avoiding an embarrassing elimination in front of the home fans in Salvador. Brazil had played Iraq and South Africa to a pair of 0-0 draws in front of jeering fans. The Brazilians will next play Colombia on Saturday in Sao Paulo.

Swimming

More gold for Ledecky: Katie Ledecky turned in another overpowering performance to carry the United States to victory in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay, capturing her third gold and fourth medal overall at the Rio Olympics. The U.S. trailed through the first three legs of the race before Ledecky’s anchor leg. The 19-year-old turned in a split of 1 minute, 53.74 seconds, which was nearly 2.5 seconds faster than her next-fastest teammate, Allison Schmitt. Kazakhstan claimed its first-ever swimming medal — a gold one, at that — when Dmitriy Balandin pulled off a stunning upset in the 200 breaststroke.

In other events

In women’s field hockey, Melissa Gonzalez scored on a penalty corner 22 seconds into the game, and Katie Bam scored the first of her three goals four minutes later as the United States beat Japan 6-1 to earn a spot in the quarterfinals. … In women’s volleyball, the United States beat Serbia 25-17, 21-25, 25-18, 25-19 to improve to 3-0 in group play.