Summer Olympics 2000 American-style team after a medal

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Saturday, September 23
American-style team after a medal

SYDNEY, Australia -- 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 consecutive 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 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 more than a minute to play, Lithuania closed to 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 game 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 fastbreak 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-foot-8 Songalia, who went against the likes of Alonzo Mourning, Kevin Garnett and China's frontline, 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.

U.S. coach Rudy Tomjanovich called Lithuania the most American of all the international teams, referring to the way it plays defensively and attacks one-on-one through its offensive sets. Jaskevicius, one of four players on the 12-man roster who went to school in the United States, agreed.

"We have players who played in American colleges and we have an American coach (assistant Donn Nelson) and he is in charge of the defense so I think so," he said. "But I think the best way to play basketball is a mixture of European and American and I think we are doing that. We're not quite all-American and we're not all-European. We have that kind of mixture."

The other former American college players are Kestutis Marciulionis, who played at Delaware, and Mindaugas Timinskas, who played at Iona.

Yugoslavia 78, Spain 65 -- Predrag 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 as close as two points at halftime of the emotional, physical game.

But Danilovic had nine points in a 2½-minute span in the second half, the last four of the points in an 11-0 run that gave Yugoslavia (4-0) a 58-47 lead with 7:30 to play. When he hit a jumper in the middle of the run he turned and threw a punch in the air as he ran downcourt and it was obvious his teammates fed off his emotion.

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 59 -- Russia (2-2) put itself in good position to advance to the quarterfinals by handing Canada its first defeat 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 closed to 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 Monday.

Australia 86, Angola 75 -- Australia, which opened the tournament with defeats to Canada and Yugoslavia and then blew a 24-point second-half lead to Russia before coming back for a victory, 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 at 76-70 with 4:36 to play, but Australia scored the next 10 points.

If Australia beats Spain in final pool game Monday, it will advance and avoid the United States in the quarterfinals. A defeat 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 57 -- Carlton Myers scored 24 points and Italy closed the game with an 11-1 run to clinch a berth in the 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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