U.S. advances to semis

Duke's Brand scores 17 in 106-75 win over Brazil

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Posted: Wednesday July 22, 1998 05:27 PM

Elton Brand (left) of the United States heavily guards Arisitdes Joseul dos Santos of Brazil AP

NEW YORK (AP) -- Coach Clem Haskins told his team a little white lie and they turned it into a whopper of a win.

The United States knew it had to beat Brazil on Tuesday night to move on to the medal round, but it had to be by enough points to be one of the top two teams in the three-team point-difference tiebreaker in Pool B.

The 106-75 victory was more than enough, as the United States finished as the four-team pool winner and will face Lithuania in Thursday's semifinals at Madison Square Garden.

Haskins did the math and the number to advance came up seven.

"We realized going in it was seven but I fibbed a bit and told the team it was eight," Haskins said. "The guys were really focused and took care of business early."

Elton Brand of Duke led six U.S. players in double figures with 17 points.

"It was a little nerve-wracking that we had to win by eight -- well, now we know it's seven," Brand said. "I was really worried we'd be up by eight or nine near the end and they would hit a shot and then we'd win but we wouldn't go on."

Puerto Rico (2-1), the third team in the three-way tie, advanced on goal average -- points scored divided by points allowed -- and will play Pool A champion Australia in the other semifinal.

The United States (2-1) hit its first seven shots in taking a 15-6 lead and it just kept pouring it on, shooting 71 percent (22-for-31), including 6-for-10 from 3-point range, on the way to a 58-45 halftime lead.

The lead was as much as 19 points in the first half as the United States' 2-3 zone defense took Brazil (2-1) out of its usually potent offense.

The second half was more. The United States led by as many as 35 points, 101-66 with 3:29 left. The U.S. team finished 38-for-58 (66 percent) from the field and was 11-for-21 on 3s.

Wally Szczerbiak of Miami of Ohio had 16 points, Keith Carter of Mississippi had 15, Andre Miller of Utah had 14 and Dion Glover of Georgia Tech and Khalid El-Amin of Connecticut had 13.

"That was a great team effort," Haskins said. "When you shoot 65 percent you take care of a lot of mistakes."

Rogerio Klafke led Brazil with 17 points, 14 in the first half.

Things didn't start out well for the United States in the tournament. It blew a 19-point second-half lead in a loss to Puerto Rico on Sunday, then struggled until pulling away from China in the final seven minutes on Monday night.

"We can't let up and we have had big leads in all our games," Szczerbiak said. "It is just going to be a matter of us putting the team away when we can."

In Pool A, Australia beat Lithuania 82-64 Tuesday to give both teams 2-1 records and the semifinal berths.

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