Team USA teases Tunisia
LONDON – Halftime ended. Showtime began.
The U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team needed awhile, but it eventually put on the show fans came to see, beating Tunisia 110-63 on Tuesday night.
Finally pulling away when coach Mike Krzyzewski started the reserves to open the second half, the Americans had six players in double figures and improved to 2-0 in the tournament.
Krzyzewski insisted he planned to start the second unit even before a lackluster first half, and said there was nothing bad about the Americans’ performance.
“It’s not going to a perfect thing, you know?” he said. “But overall, tonight was good. I mean, come on, it was 110-63.”
True, it was a 47-point blowout, but the lead was just 13 at the half, and Krzyzewski sure didn’t look pleased as he walked quickly to the locker room. But if he didn’t see anything wrong, the players sure did – though they weren’t concerned.
“We told him, don’t get worried,” Carmelo Anthony said. “We’re all right.”
They sure were.
Anthony, Deron Williams, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love and Andre Iguodala opened the third quarter with a 21-3 run, turning a surprisingly close 13-point game into a 67-36 bulge before any of the more celebrated starters finally got to play in the second half.
“That was a great lift, man. That’s the best thing about this team, there’s no drop-off,” Kevin Durant said. “We’ve got All-Stars off the bench. Those guys did a great job for us.”
Anthony and Love scored 16 points apiece for the Americans, who gave the fans the dunk show they expected once the game was in hand. Durant had 13, and rookie Anthony Davis dunked his way to 12.
SWIMMING
American Allison Schmitt won the women’s 200 freestyle with a dominating performance that left everyone else, including teammate Missy Franklin, battling for the other medals.
Schmitt won in an Olympic-record 1 minute, 53.61 seconds. France’s Camille Muffat took silver in 1:55.58, almost a body length behind, while Bronte Barrett of Australia took the bronze over Franklin by a hundredth of a second. Barrett touched in 1:55.81. Franklin, who led after the first 50, was fourth in 1:55.82.
Schmitt captured her first career gold medal, to go along with a silver in the 400 free and a bronze in the 4×100 free relay.
The 17-year-old Franklin was denied her third medal of the games, one night after her gutsy victory in the 100 backstroke earned her a tweet-out from pop star Justin Bieber.
China’s Ye Shiwen set an Olympic record to win her second gold of the London Games, adding the 200 individual medley title to a world-record performance in the 400 IM that sparked suspicions about doping. Everyone from her fellow swimmers to the International Olympic Committee has come to her defense, and she put aside any distractions to win again.
The questions didn’t stop. The teenager was peppered with drug-related queries at her news conference, including a reporter asking her point-black if she had ever used banned substances.
“Absolutely not,” Ye said through a translator.
The 16-year-old took the lead in the final lap and clocked 2:07.57, shaving 0.18 off her own mark set in Monday’s semifinal. Alicia Coutts of Australia touched in 2:08.15 to take the silver medal, and Caitlin Leverenz of the United States finished in 2:08.95 to take bronze.
Defending champion Stephanie Rice of Australia was fourth.
EQUESTRIAN
Zara Phillips gave the royal family plenty to cheer about, helping Britain to a second-place team equestrian finish behind Germany. Princes William and Harry, and William’s wife, Kate, were in the stands to watch their cousin as she competed in the show jumping final portion of Olympic eventing.
Phillips’ mother, Princess Anne, watched as well – then presented her daughter and the rest of the winners with their medals at the ceremony before horses and riders took a thunderous group victory lap around the Greenwich Park stadium.
BEACH VOLLEYBALL
Americans Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser rallied for a 19-21, 21-16, 15-13 victory against Spain and remained unbeaten in the preliminary round of the beach volleyball tournament.
Defending world champions and top-seeded Emanuel and Alison of Brazil also won, beating Switzerland.
On the women’s side, Americans April Ross and Jennifer Kessy needed three sets to beat the Netherlands, 21-15, 21-12, 15-8.
SOCCER
The United States clinched first place in its group in women’s soccer with a 1-0 win over North Korea.
Abby Wambach scored in the 25th minute for her 141st international goal and third of the tournament. Wambach and Co. then celebrated by coercing goaltender Hope Solo to get on the ground and do “the worm.”
Nearly 30,000 attended the first women’s soccer game played in 23 years at Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United.
Host Britain also is perfect through three matches, blanking Brazil 1-0 to delight an electric crowd of 70,584 at Wembley Stadium. Kelly Smith had the only goal.
TENNIS
Andy Roddick spent less than an hour on the court during an emphatic loss to Novak Djokovic. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga needed a much longer run to advance against Milos Raonic.
Roddick lost 6-2, 6-1 to Djokovic in 54 minutes, leaving the 29-year-old American to fend off more questions about retirement.
The second-ranked Djokovic had 34 winners on Centre Court at the All England Club. Roddick had 12.
Tsonga of France moved on by winning the longest set in Olympic history. He beat Raonic of Canada, 6-3, 3-6, 25-23. The final set lasted three hours and totaled 257 points.
Andy Murray, Marcos Baghdatis and Kei Nishikori also won on the men’s side. Maria Sharapova and Venus Williams were among the winners in the women’s tournament.
VOLLEYBALL
Clay Stanley scored 16 points, and the U.S. men’s team improved to 2-0 in pool play with a three-set victory over Germany.
Matt Anderson added 15 points in the 25-23, 25-16, 25-20 win for the defending Olympic champions.
WATER POLO
Ryan Bailey and Peter Varellas scored three goals apiece, and the U.S. recovered from a slow start to beat Romania 10-8 in the men’s tournament.
The U.S., which took silver four years ago in Beijing, and gold medal-favorite Serbia are tied for the Group B lead with four points apiece after two matches. Serbia beat host Britain, 21-7.
FIELD HOCKEY
Shannon Taylor scored late in the first half, and the U.S. upset Argentina 1-0 in women’s field hockey. The Americans controlled long stretches of play against the No. 2-ranked team in the world, got some key saves from Amy Swensen and kept Argentine star Luciana Aymar largely silent throughout.
The U.S. got into the Olympics by stunning Argentina 4-2 in last year’s final at the Pan American Games.
BOXING
Carlos Suarez was upset with the scoring after he dropped a 16-6 decision to Turkey’s Ferhat Pehlivan. Five ringside judges decided the awkward Pehlivan – who slipped and fell to the canvas probably more than a dozen times during the bout – landed more scoring punches. Suarez, who is from Lima, Ohio, but is fighting for his mother’s homeland of Trinidad and Tobago, called it “a horrible decision.”
SHOOTING
Vincent Hancock is putting together quite the Olympic resume. The 23-year-old U.S. Army sergeant is a two-time champion in men’s skeet shooting after he successfully defended his crown with a score of 148 in London.
Hancock’s win gave the U.S. a skeet sweep, after Kimberly Rhode won the women’s competition last weekend.
DIVING
Chen Ruolin and Wang Hao led China to its third diving gold in London, this one off the big tower in women’s 10-meter synchronized diving. China won going away with 368.40 points, and the country is nearly halfway to its goal of sweeping the eight diving events.
Mexico’s Paola Espinosa and 15-year-old Alejandra Orozco took the silver, and Meaghan Benfeito and Roseline Filion won the bronze for Canada.
