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Athens, Greece (Sports Network) - Tim Duncan led a balanced American attack with 15 points and seven rebounds, as the United States men's basketball team completed the preliminary round with a resounding 89-53 victory over winless Angola.
Larry Brown's team, which moved to 3-2 and was already assured of a quarterfinal spot entering the contest, was never challenged in the game. The Americans scored the first five points and finished the opening quarter up 23-14.
The Americans will play either Argentina, Italy or unbeaten Spain in the quarterfinals on Thursday, depending on what happens in later games today. The U.S. can finish no higher than third in Group B following losses earlier in the tournament to Puerto Rico and Lithuania.
A victory by Greece over Puerto Rico tonight would put the U.S. in fourth and then the Americans would be forced to play Spain.
"I don't care whether we face Spain, or Italy or Argentina," USA guard Allen Iverson said. "I care about my team and I am sure that we'll be ready to accept this challenge and move forward to the next round."
The U.S. opened the second period with a 16-3 spurt, moving to a 39-17 advantage on Carlos Boozer's perimeter shot with 5:10 left in the half. The Americans were in front 46-26 at the break and it became a runaway when the U.S. scored 14 of the first 16 points of the third quarter. Amare Stoudemire's bucket made it 60-28 with 5:39 remaining in the period.
LeBron James and Boozer each had 11 points, while Iverson scored 10. Boozer also had nine boards, as the U.S. outrebounded Angola (0-5), 52-17.
"We felt a lot better today on the floor," Iverson said. "We played with great energy in defense and we finished the game from the first half. I think we gained some confidence from this one and I am sure that we will be better in the next crucial game for the qualification."
The Americans took advantage of the inside play as they attempted only six three-pointers, making half of them. The U.S. made 30-of-54 two-point attempts.
"We improved from our first game to our last one, and I feel better now than after the Puerto Rico game," Brown said. "I didn't like a lot of the things my players did on the court, but this is what young guys do. But anyway, I'm happy I got to play a lot of the guys because some of them are not used to sitting on the bench."
Angola, which played without three injured players, including leading scorer Miguel Lutonda, was led by the 20-point effort of Valter Monteiro.
Also Monday, China (2-3) shocked reigning world champions Serbia and Montenegro (1-4), 67-66 to claim the final quarterfinal berth. Chinese superstar center Yao Ming stepped up his play in a huge way with 27 points and 13 rebounds, as he shot 9-fo-12 from the field. Predrag Drobnjak had 17 points for Serbia and Montenegro, which wasted a seven-point fourth-quarter lead.
China was behind 63-57 following a three-pointer by Drobnjak with 3:32 left, but Del Harris' team scored the next 10 points. Two free throws by Yao evened the score at 63 with 1:44 left and had made two more foul shots for a 65-63 advantage with 28 seconds remaining. Following a turnover, Du Feng hit two free throws in the closing seconds to seal the victory, following which the Chinese burst into celebration with Yao hugging Harris as the two walked off the court.
In their only other previous Olympic matchup, in the Atlanta 1996 quarterfinals, Serbia and Montenegro (then Yugoslavia) won by 67 points, 128-61.
Elsewhere on Monday, Spain (5-0) completed its undefeated run atop Group A with an 88-84 victory over New Zealand (1-4), which was left out of the quarterfinals. After New Zealand tied the game at 81, Pau Gasol scored five straight points to put Spain ahead to stay. Jorge Garbajosa had 17 points, while Rodolfo Fernandez added 15 and Gasol totaled 14 points and 10 rebounds. Phillip Jones had 23 points for New Zealand.
The only other team to finish unbeaten in preliminary round play was Lithuania (5-0), which out-gunned Australia (1-4), 100-85. A 27-5 run gave Lithuania a commanding 52-28 lead at the half and they led the remainder of the way, even though Australia had managed to cut its deficit to seven points at 69-62 late in the third quarter.
Robertas Javtokas had 23 points and Ksistof Lavrinovic added 18 points for Lithuania. Andrew Bogut had 21 points and nine rebounds for Australia, which was left out of the quarterfinals.
- The Sports Network
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//- Never give up on the things that make you smile. <3 |
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08-24-2004 10:53 PM
