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With 3-Pointers Finally Falling, U.S. Routs Spain

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A Tribune wire report

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 17, 2008

Updated: 08/17/2008 12:16 am

BEIJING - Four down, four to go. The U.S. men's Olympic team is halfway back to the top of the basketball world.

And not even the world champions - on paper anyway - could give the Americans a game.

Unleashing a lethal 3-point barrage for the first time in Beijing, the Americans turned the marquee matchup of the preliminary round into another romp, beating Spain 119-82 Saturday night to clinch the top seed in their group.
LeBron James scored 18 points for the United States (4-0), which hit seven of its first 10 attempts from behind the arc after making only 29 percent in its first three games. They finished at 48 percent (12 of 25), an almost unfair total for a team with unmatched athleticism.

Every U.S. player scored - even Jason Kidd for the first time in Beijing - as the Americans turned the matchup of unbeatens into their easiest victory yet. Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony each finished with 16 points.

The Americans will face the No. 4 seed from Group A, either Australia or Croatia, in the quarterfinals.

BASEBALL: Terry Tiffee and Brian Barden drove in two runs each as Team USA rallied from a 4-0 deficit to edge Canada 5-4. Lefty Brian Duensing came on in relief, holding the Canadians to a single during the last 31/3 innings.

Both teams came in with 1-2 records, all four losses coming by one run each.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL: Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal advanced with a 26-24, 21-17 victory vs. Spain. The victory against Pablo Herrera Allepuz and Raul Mesa kept the U.S. on track for an All-American final.

Earlier Saturday, Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers overcame a 6-0 deficit in the third set to beat Switzerland 21-16, 21-23, 15-13.

On the women's side, Athens gold medalists Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor advanced to the semifinals by beating Brazilians Ana Paula and Larissa 21-18, 21-15 for their 106th consecutive victory. A victory by Nicole Branagh and Elaine Youngs later in the day would give the United States half of the final four.

FENCING: The U.S. women's foil team of Emily Cross, Hannah Thompson and Erinn Smart won the silver medal, losing to Russia 28-11.

SHOOTING: American Vincent Hancock won the gold medal in skeet shooting, beating Norwegian Tore Brovold in a shoot-off. Brovold forced the tiebreaker with a perfect final round, hitting all 25 targets to pull even with Hancock at 145. Brovold and Hancock each hit the first two targets of the shoot-off, but then Brovold missed one of two and Hancock hit both.

SOFTBALL: Jessica Mendoza hit her third homer in two days and Jennie Finch pitched five shutout innings as the U.S. kept rolling with a 7-0 win against Taiwan to run its Olympic winning streak to 19.

The Americans (5-0) recorded their fourth shutout in five games and needed just five innings Saturday to beat Taiwan (1-4), which hasn't defeated the U.S. in a major competition since 1982.

TENNIS: Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka took the men's doubles title, while Venus and Serena Williams clinched at least a silver medal in doubles. The Williamses beat Ukraine's Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko to advance to the gold-medal match against Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual.

Federer and Wawrinka beat Sweden's Simon Aspelin and Thomas Johansson 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-3. American twins Bob and Mike Bryan, who have won all four Grand Slam championships, won the bronze in men's doubles.

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