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Roundup Lithuania downs China two days after scaring U.S.
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Less than 48 hours after becoming the first team ever to throw a scare into a U.S. men's Olympic team with NBA players, Lithuania got back to the business of chasing a third straight medal. There was no emotional letdown over what might have been. In fact, Lithuania came out and took control in the opening 10 minutes Saturday (Friday night EDT) and beat China 82-66. "We understand which games we must win and this was a must-win game for us," guard Sarunas Jasikevicius said. "No matter how good you play against States, you really need to beat teams like China if you want to get a good position (in the quarterfinals). "I don't think there was a letdown. If anything, I think we were really ready to play." On Thursday, Lithuania became the first team to lead in the second half over a U.S. Olympic team since the NBA players started competing in 1992. With just over a minute to play, Lithuania was within five points but missed two free throws and the U.S. team won 85-76, by far the closest anyone has come against one of the Dream Teams.
"We were really disappointed against States because they didn't give it their best against us and we had the opportunity but did things like miss 16 free throws so we were really disappointed," said Jasikevicius, who played at Maryland and now plays professionally in Spain. Another Lithuania player with Atlantic Coast Conference ties, Darius Songalia, will be a senior at Wake Forest this season. He had 19 points on 7-for-10 shooting and grabbed six rebounds against China. "After the great game we played against States, the coaches said in the locker room right away that this was going to be our most important games and we had to let that game go psychologically," Songalia said. "We did and everybody came out ready to play." Lithuania (2-2), bronze medalist at the past two Olympics, used an 11-0 run to take a 21-12 lead over China (1-3) in the opening eight minutes. The same tough defense Lithuania played against the United States was there, but so was a pretty potent fast break to try to offset China's height advantage, with 7-foot-5 Yao Ming and 7-1 Wang Zhizhi. China was never closer than nine points in the second half and Lithuania finished with a 35-25 rebound advantage. "Obviously it's a tough game when you get banged around like these two games and then have to get out on offense," said the 6-8 Songalia, who went against the likes of Alonzo Mourning, Kevin Garnett and China's front line, a tougher two days than even a weekend against Duke and North Carolina. "Today we just tried to run and get on the fastbreak and the coaches said their big guys would get tired and they were right." Yao had 23 points on 9-for-12 shooting for China, while Wang, who was saddled with foul trouble and played only 26 minutes, had 12 on 4-for-11 shooting. Yugoslavia 78, Spain 65Predrag Danilovic scored 13 of his 14 points in the second half as Yugoslavia pulled away to remain unbeaten in pool play. Danilovic, who played for the Miami Heat, missed all four of his shots in the opening 20 minutes as Spain (1-3) stayed within two points at halftime. But Danilovic had nine points in a 21/2-minute span in the second half, the last four in an 11-0 run that gave Yugoslavia (4-0) a 58-47 lead with 7:30 to play. Yugoslavia shot 71.4 percent in the second half (15 for 21) as Danilovic hit all four of his field goal attempts. Alberto Herreros had 16 points for Spain. Russia 77, Canada 59Russia (2-2) put itself in good position to advance to the quarterfinals by handing Canada its first loss of the tournament with some outstanding defense. Andrei Fetisov had 15 points to lead Russia, which faces winless Angola in its final pool game. Yevgeny Pachoutine had five points, seven rebounds and 12 assists. Canada (3-1) came into the game leading the tournament with a 59.8 shooting percentage. Against Russia it was 32.8 percent (19 for 58) as Rowan Barrett and Michael Meeks, the second- and third-leading scorers in the tournament at 19.0 and 18.3 points, were held to two and six points, respectively. "They are long and athletic and they take things away," Canada coach Jay Triano said of Russia. "They deflected a lot of passes and we didn't have a lot of control. You're not going to win shooting like that." Russia opened the second half with a 13-2 run for a 58-38 lead, holding Canada to one field goal over the first 6:40. Canada got within 10 points twice, but each time Sergei Tchikalkine hit a 3-pointer to extend the lead. Steve Nash, who plays for the Dallas Mavericks, had 15 points to lead Canada, while Todd MacCullouch, who plays for the Philadelphia 76ers, added 11. Canada can still win its pool by beating Yugoslavia in its final game on Monday. Australia 86, Angola 75Australia, which opened the tournament with losses to Canada and Yugoslavia and then blew a 24-point second-half lead to Russia before coming back for a win, got a huge scare from Angola (0-4). Australia (2-2) didn't take the lead for good until a 3-pointer by Andrew Gaze put them up 60-59 with 11:56 to play. Angola, 3-15 in three Olympic appearances, was still within 76-70 with 4:36 to play, but Australia scored the next 10 points. If Australia beats Spain in Monday's final pool game, it will advance and avoid the United States in the quarterfinals. A loss would end any chances at a medal. "A lot is riding on the Spain game," said Gaze, who scored 18 points. "Hopefully we'll move on and fulfill our goal that we started out with." David Dias led Angola with 18 points.
Italy 67, France 57Carlton Myers scored 24 points and European champion Italy closed the game with an 11-1 run Saturday to clinch a berth in the men's basketball Olympic quarterfinals. Italy (3-1) led 54-44 with 6:49 to play only to see France (2-2) go on a 12-2 run to tie the game 56-56 on a free throw by Federic Weis with 2:17 to play. Gregor Fucka tipped in a missed free throw with 1:48 to play to give Italy the lead for good and start the closing run that was capped by six points from Myers. Laurent Sciarra had 17 points to lead France, which plays the
United States in its final preliminary round game Monday. France
can still advance if China beats Italy.
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