Not bad for a bunch of kids

U.S. beats Lithuania, heads to Goodwill gold-medal game

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Posted: Friday July 24, 1998 01:50 AM

Lithuania's Mindaugas Zukauskas (left) wrestles for the ball with the United States' Wally Szczerbiak

NEW YORK (AP) - A group of college kids is proving the critics wrong in the Goodwill Games.

Seemingly too inexperienced wrong in the Goodwill to match up against veteran international opponents, the U.S. basketball team dominated its third straight game after a disheartening opener, and now finds itself in the gold-medal game.

"The best basketball talent obviously has gone on to the NBA," coach Clem Haskins said after the United States defeated Lithuania 89-76 Thursday night in the semifinals. "We could have guys like Kevin Garnett on this team, but these guys are very coachable and I wouldn't trade them for anyone else. But we have a tough task ahead against a team with three NBA-quality players."

The Americans will play Friday night against Australia, which beat defending champion Puerto Rico 86-74. Shane Heal, on the Minnesota Timberwolves roster two seasons ago; Chris Antsey of the Dallas Mavericks; and Andrew Gaze, a Seton Hall star in 1989 who had short NBA tryouts, are three of Australia's top players.

NBA stars from the United States never were scheduled to play in this tournament, even before the current labor dispute. So this U.S. team is a young college squad.

It started the Goodwill tournament by taking a 19-point lead over Puerto Rico, then losing by eight. Undaunted, the Americans came back to defeat Brazil and China to reach the medal round.

"I was down a little bit on Monday after we lost Sunday night, but the guys bounced back and have played extremely well," Haskins said. Referring to the team's 10-for-17 3-point shooting Thursday night, he added, "We're starting to shoot the ball extremely well." A 3-pointer by Wally Szczerbiak of Miami-Ohio, who led a balanced U.S. offense with 20 points, gave the Americans a 19-point lead over Lithuania with 141/2 minutes left.

That was about the time the U.S. folded against Puerto Rico. But this time, the Americans held steady, and seven points in a 21/2-minute span by Keith Carter of Mississippi made it 76-51 with 9:09 to go.

"At that point, we knew what we had to do to bury this team," Carter said. "On Sunday, we didn't do that."

Duke's Elton Brand scored 15 points, Carter had 12, Andre Miller of Utah 11 and Jumaine Jones of Georgia 10 for the United States.

Danius Adomaitis led Lithuania with 21 points.

Szczerbiak had three 3-pointers and 13 points in the first half for the United States, carrying it to a 51-35 lead. Lithuania, which will play Puerto Rico in the bronze-medal game Friday night, got no closer than the final margin in the second half.

Asked how the team recovered mentally from losing a big lead against Puerto Rico, Szczerbiak credited Haskins.

"He took the positives from the game," Szczerbiak said. "Obviously, we did something right to lead by 19, so we took that and built on it."

Lithuania assistant Donnie Nelson said the Americans jelled quickly after the Puerto Rico loss.

"I think the key for them is athleticism," Nelson said. "Now that they've had some time to play together, they're going to be hard to beat."

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