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Friday, September 29
Rematch almost pays off with victory
Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia -- The names are familiar to college
basketball fans and well-known to those who follow the
international game.
After its near upset of the United States on Friday night in the
men's Olympic semifinals, all American basketball fans should know
the players from Lithuania.
When Sarunas Jasikevicius' 3-point attempt at the buzzer missed,
the U.S. team of NBA players had an 85-83 victory over a Lithuania
team that features four former or current NCAA Division I players.
What would have been the biggest upset in Olympic basketball
history would have been void of a household name.
"They know the game. They know every person on our team and
they know what we do as players," U.S. guard Ray Allen said.
Then he mentioned who many consider the key to Lithuania's
American-style success, assistant coach Donn Nelson. Nelson, who is
an assistant to his father with the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, has
been an assistant with the Lithuania national program for 10 years.
"They have Donn Nelson, one of the best coaches in the NBA,"
Allen said. "There's nothing we can do to surprise them."
Jasikevicius, who finished with 27 points, played at Maryland.
Darius Songalia, who will be a junior at Wake Forest, had 12
points. Mindaugas Timinskas, who played at Iona, had 12 points.
Kestutis Marciulionis, who played at Delaware, was a key reserve
spelling Jasikevicius when he was in foul trouble.
"We knew what we could do from the first game," Songalia said,
referring to the 85-76 loss in the preliminary round that had been
the closest game ever for a U.S. Olympic team with NBA players
until Friday night. "I don't know if the people back in the States
know who we are. Maybe they will now."
Nelson had said after the first loss that the "stars were lined
up for us."
"That we were that close again was a miracle," he said. "The
last couple of possessions. They were tough."
Nelson, who started his relationship with Lithuania because of
his friendship with former Lithuania star Sarunas Marciulionis, who
played for the Golden State Warriors when Nelson was an assistant
there.
"It's like being a lawyer, you fight for your client," he said
when he asked if he hoped Jasikevicius' final shot would have
fallen and sent the United States to the bronze medal game. "You
get caught up in the emotions of the game. During that last
possession, I was doing a lot of soul-searching."
Lithuania has won the last two bronze medals. A third straight
would be nice, but a win over the United States would have been
what the basketball world would have remembered forever.
"If somebody had told us we would lose to the United States by
two points, I wouldn't have believed them," Lithuania forward
Tomas Masiulis said. "Tonight, we even had a chance to win."
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