Team USA Routs Slovenia In Quarterfinal, 110-83
8/10/2001 12:23:00 PM | Men's Basketball
by Craig Miller, USA Basketball
The win, the USA's sixth consecutive, keeps their gold medal hopes alive and advances the U.S. into Saturday's medal semifinals where they will face Argentina (4-2) (8:20 p.m. Tokyo time) for the right to play in Sunday's gold medal game.
The U.S. and Argentina are familiar opponents. Earlier in preliminary play (Aug. 5), the USA posted an 84-71 victory over the South Americans. In last summer's Americas World Championship For Young Men Qualifying Tournament in Brazil, the USA recorded an 83-78 victory over Argentina in preliminary play, but fell 92-77 in the tournament's gold medal contest.
"With three teams that were the higher seeds getting beat before us, we were obviously very concerned to come out and play well," said USA and Syracuse mentor Jim Boeheim. "I thought Slovenia came out and played well, but once we got our running game going, we got good fastbreak opportunities. Our bench came in and played extremely well for us."
The early going proved competitive as the two teams battled and with 2:13 left in the first quarter the USA led 21-20. UCLA forward Jason Kapono (Lakeland, CA) and Evans accounted for five and four points, respectively, as the Americans closed out the opening period with a 9-1 run to take a 30-21 lead. Slovenia cut the gap to 34-30 with 7:54 to go in the second stanza, but the USA reeled off 10 consecutive points during an 18-4 offensive spurt that saw Carlos Boozer (Duke/Juneau, AL) contribute seven points and the lead was pushed to 18 points, 52-34, with 3:55 to play before intermission. Slovenia rallied over the second quarter's final 3:55 and outscored the Americans 7-2 to leave the halftime score 54-41.
Duhon nailed a 3-pointer to open the third quarter and the USA lead was never again less than 14 points as Slovenia could not stay with the 12-deep USA team.
All 12 U.S. players scored, including six in double digits. Kapono finished with 14 points, Nick Collison (Kansas/Iowa Falls, IA) tossed in 13 points and tied a USA single-game record for steals with four, while Jameer Nelson (St. Joseph's/Chester, PA) added 11 points and six assists, and Brian Cook (Illinois/Lincoln, IL) tallied 10 points, a team-high nine rebounds while adding three assists, two steals and one blocked shot.
In the other medal round quarterfinals play Friday, the Dominican Republic (4-2) upset Israel (4-2) 91-72, Croatia (3-3) stunned Spain (4-2) 83-67, and Argentina took control in the final five minutes to eliminate defending champ Australia (4-2) 75-64. In consolation quarterfinals games, Egypt (2-4) defeated South Korea (0-6) 101-76 and Qatar (1-5) earned its first win handing Japan (2-4) a 96-80 loss.
Saturday's medal semifinals games feature Dominican Republic facing Croatia, and the USA versus Argentina. In semifinals play to determine fifth through eighth place, Israel will play Spain and Argentina meets Slovenia. In games slated for Saturday as well, Egypt takes on Qatar in a game for ninth place, while Japan and South Korea meet to determine 11th place. The gold and bronze medal games, as well as final round games to determine fifth through eighth places will be contested on Sunday, Aug. 12. "We've played Argentina five times in the last three years so they know us very well and we know them very well. It will be a very difficult game," said Boeheim on the USA's semifinal opponent Argentina. "I thought they played extremely well today -- their whole team was outstanding. It will be a very tough, difficult game, by far the toughest game yet. We like to be able to get out. Defense is always a key, the better our defense then the more we get out and get easy baskets at the other end. If our defense isn't strong then we don't get the easy baskets in transition."
