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Lithuania extends bronze streak and Aussie heartache
SYDNEY, Oct 1 (AFP) - Lithuania bounced back from a near upset over the United States "Dream Team" to extend an Olympic men's basketball bronze medal streak to three Games with an 89-71 triumph over Australia here Sunday. Saulius Stombergas scored 28 points and Sarunas Jasikevicius added 22 as the Lithuanians showed no letdown from their 85-83 last-shot loss to the American collection of National Basketball Association stars. "It doesn't feel good, almost doesn't count," Lithuanian forward Mindaugas Timinskas said. "We lost when we had a very good chance. We had to forget about it. It is a new day. We had to think about this game and forget about the compliments." Lithuania led 51-35 at half-time against Australia and Jasikevicius quickly added back-to-back three-pointers to lift the edge to 59-35. Australia never came within 14 points after that. "We were wondering how they would come back after being on the edge of making sports history and one of the greatest upsets in all of sport," Aussie captain Andrew Gaze said. "They bounced back well and showed plenty of heart." Australian flag bearer and five-time Olympian Gaze, 35, failed in a 40-year family quest for a first Aussie men's basketball medal that began with his father Lindsay as a player from 1960-1968 and Olympic coach from 1972-1984. "It's certainly not empty," Gaze said. "Obviously you would give anything to win a medal. As much as you want victory, there's enormous pleasure you get along the way. There's much to be said for the value of competition. The opportunity I have had is a reward in itself. "I wouldn't say it's empty. I would say it's very full and I'm very happy to have been part of it." Lithuania made 22-of-33 shots in the first half, 6-of-11 from the three-point range, while the Aussies hit only 10-of-25 and missed all six tries from beyond the arc. "We didn't lose the level set in the previous game. We kept at a high level," Lithuanian coach Jonas Kazlauskas said. "Our team is young. There was no psychological pressure as the Australians had." The Lithuanians made 11 of their first 14 shots, including 3-of-3 from three-point range, to grab a 30-14 lead and mute the crowd of 14,833, most of them boosters of the Boomers, as the Aussie squad is known Down Under. Gaze scored a team-high 22 points but could never pull his team into contention again. "We're very disappointed," Gaze said. "We didn't have the ability to contain their players. We didn't bring our very best. If you don't you see what happens." The Australians were playing without center Luc Longley, a three-time National Basketball Association champion with the Chicago Bulls. Longley suffered a knee injury in a semi-final loss to France. Making the blow even worse for Longley was the fact he said before the Games began that one of his most painful memories was being injured and watching the 1996 Aussie Olympians lose the bronze-medal game to Lithuania in Atlanta. "We put in a lot of work since Atlanta and to lose two games like that, we let it slip away," Longley said. "We felt like we deserved a better end. We've been knocking on the door for a long time. It was time to step up, especially on home turf. It's about pride.
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