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Monday, September 25
Canada misses U.S. in quarterfinals
Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia -- Steve Nash led Canada to its biggest
international basketball victory and made all the tiebreaker talk
pointless.
|  | | When Canada's Steve Nash, right, wasn't scoring at virtual will in the second half, he got tangled up with Yugoslavia's Predrag Danilovic. |
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."
The quarterfinal matchups Thursday will be: United States-Russia;
Lithuania-Yugoslavia; Canada-France; and Italy-Australia. The
winners of the first two games will meet in one semifinal and the
other winners will meet in the second.
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."
Australia 91, Spain 80 -- Australia entered the Olympics with the homecourt advantage and definite medal aspirations. Opening losses to Canada and Yugoslavia had the hosts in a win-or-else game that Shane Heal and Andrew Gaze took over in the second half.
Gaze, the five-time Olympian, had 11 points and Heal added eight
in a 23-4 run that gave Australia (3-2) a 69-51 lead with 8:51 to
play. The crowd of 8,398 in The Dome was roaring, and Gaze and Heal
brought the noise level higher with each of the three 3-pointers
they hit to start the run.
"We are very relieved to have a chance to move on and fulfill
our goals," said Gaze, second only to Brazil's Oscar Schmidt on
the Olympic career scoring list. "It's great that we have a chance
to look ahead."
Heal had 26 points and was 4-for-8 from 3-point range, while
Gaze had 22 points and was 4-for-7 from beyond the arc.
Spain (1-4) opened the game with a 9-1 run.
"We were looking at each other on the bench and said we have to play catch-up again, and fortunately our shooters, Andrew and
Shane, came through," Australian coach Barry Barnes said.
Alberto Herreros had 24 points for Spain, which will play China
for ninth place Tuesday.
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 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 but
had to wait for games later Monday to find out its matchup.
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 defeats 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) in a game that had no bearing on the Group A standings.
China 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 consecutive 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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