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Roundup Canada upsets Yugoslavia, heads to medal round
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Steve Nash led Canada to its biggest international basketball victory and made all the tiebreaker talk pointless. With Nash getting 26 points, eight rebounds and eight assists, Canada beat Yugoslavia 83-75 Monday night to finish first in Group B in men's Olympic basketball and avoid a possible quarterfinal meeting with the United States. Canada (4-1), certainly not considered among the medal favorites entering this tournament, won its group by beating the reigning world champion (Yugoslavia) and the host country. "I told them this would be the biggest game in the history of our country, and I told that there would be a lot of Canadians up late watching this game, so let's not let them down," said Canada coach Jay Triano, a player on his country's last Olympic team in 1988. "I told them they can enjoy it for one day, then we have to get ready for France. That will be the biggest game in the history of our country." Canada will play France in one of Thursday's quarterfinals, while the United States, the only unbeaten team in the tournament and the winner of Group A, will face either Russia or Spain. The other two games will be Yugoslavia against Lithuania and Italy against either Russia or Australia.
Nash took Canada out of the mix of any tiebreakers with an unbelievable second half. After going 1-for-6 from the field in the first half, he made five of seven shots in the second half. When the game was on the line, he dominated it from the point guard position. Nash scored or assisted on 18 of Canada's last 21 points. He hit 3-pointers to tie the game at 65 and 68. His two free throws with 1:47 left gave Canada the lead for good at 74-73. "This is why it's fun. This is why you play," said Nash, who plays for the Dallas Mavericks and once led Santa Clara to a huge first-round upset of Arizona in the NCAA tournament. "To have a little struggle and adversity, that's when you find out who you are. "Before the game I thought this was going to be our game." It didn't start out that way as Yugoslavia took a 42-33 halftime lead. Suddenly the thoughts of the three-team tiebreaker Canada would have lost by one point were back. "'We didn't want the Spain-Australia game to determine whether or not we played the United States," Triano said. "We have so much respect for Yugoslavia and we knew we would be playing one of the best teams in the world." Todd MacCullouch of the Philadelphia 76ers had 21 points for Canada. "Steve makes it so easy for us big guys," MacCullouch said. "He makes us look a lot better than we are." When the game ended, center Pete Guarasci picked up Nash and wouldn't put him down as the team celebrated. Predrag Davolovic, who played for the Miami Heat, led Yugoslavia with 20 points. "We knew this would be a difficult game and for most of the game we played well," Yugoslavia coach Zelimir Obradovic said. "The eight-point difference isn't real, because we had a chance to win the game." Russia 88, Angola 65 Nikita Morgunov scored 17 points to lead Russia (3-2). Angola (0-5) stayed with Russia for the opening 10 minutes, trailing 22-21. But Russia started to get the ball inside and went on an 11-5 run in the next six minutes with six of the points coming on free throws as it established the low presence. Andrei Kirilenko had 11 points and nine rebounds for Russia, which finished with a 44-25 advantage on the boards and had assists on 21 of its 29 field goals. David Dias had 14 points for Angola, which will play New Zealand for 11th place on Tuesday. Lithuania 85, New Zealand 75 Dainius Adomaitis was 4-for-5 from 3-point range and scored 20 points to lead Lithuania (3-2), which finished third in Group A. Lithuania was just 1-for-5 from 3-point range in the first half as it took a 36-33 lead. Adomaitis made all four of his 3-point attempts in the second half as Lithuania, the bronze medal winners in the last two Olympics, stayed in front by making eight of 10 from beyond the arc. Six players scored in double figures for Lithuania, which won despite committing 21 turnovers. Sean Marks had 21 points and Phill Jones added 20 for New Zealand, which is making its Olympic debut. Except for a 46-point loss to the United States, New Zealand's losses were all by between 10 and 16 points. China 85, Italy 76 Li Nan scored 25 points on 6-for-7 3-point shooting to lead China (2-3), which shot 67 percent (34-for-51) and made 13 of 19 3-point attempts. Italy (3-2), in the Olympic tournament for the first time since a fifth-place finish in 1984, will finish second to the United States in the group and make its eighth straight quarterfinal appearance. Alessandro Abbibo had 15 points for Italy, which shot 53 percent (33-for-62). China is making its seventh Olympic appearance and has never advanced to the quarterfinals. It will play for ninth place on Tuesday.
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