Briefly

Men’s basketball

The United States tossed its talent around and overpowered Angola 87-54 in its second game of the Olympics, but for the second time the Dream Team failed to reach 100 points.

Four years ago Dream Team I had a 68-point margin of victory over Angola in Barcelona.

The 87 points were the fewest for any of the Dream Teams, and the lowest for a U.S. men’s Olympic team since the semifinal loss to the Soviet Union in 1988.

“Teams are slowing it down and refusing to run with us, and it’s going to keep the deficits smaller,” said Spokane’s John Stockton. “It’s a challenge for us now to insist that they play our way and not their way.”

Equestrians

Bruce Davidson’s dressage test helped the United States hold its lead over New Zealand after two days of the three-day event.

Fencing

Americans Margaret Paxton and Felicia Zimmerman lost first-round bouts in women’s foil, while Ann Marsh made it to the quarterfinals before being ousted. Cliff Bayer, Peter Devine and Eric Bravin of the United States all lost in the first round of men’s foil.

Field hockey

The U.S. women squandered a 2-0 lead before Barb Marois fired the winner with the last hit of the match to give the Americans a 3-2 victory over South Korea.

Gymnastics

Two mistakes in the pommel horse by the most capable U.S. gymnasts - two-time Olympian John Roethlisberger and pommel horse expert Mihai Bagiu - sliced a full point from the American team total. Those deductions, which came midway through Monday’s competition, sank the U.S. team into fifth place, an agonizing 92-hundredths of a point behind bronze medalist Ukraine.

The Russian team, still powerful despite the breakup of the Soviet Union, won the gold medal, well ahead of runner-up China.

Judo

Brian Olson became the first American judo winner in the Games when he beat Wu Kuo Hui of Taiwan in the first round of the middleweight competition. But Olson was eliminated by Lithuanian Algimantas Merkevicius in the second round.

Liliko Ogasawara, the United States’ top chance for a medal, lost twice and became one of three American women eliminated. Sandra Bacher lost to Hannah Ertel of Germany in the first round and Rene Capo was defeated by Mevlud Lobjanidze of Georgia.

Rowing

U.S. hopes for a gold in women’s rowing almost sank when the favored crew in eights lost its qualifying race by a length to Belarus. The loss meant the United States will have to row Wednesday in the repechage.

In another prelim at Lake Lanier, the defending world champion Dutch men’s eight advanced to Friday’s semifinal along with the United States, looking for its first gold since 1964.

Shooting

American Rob Harbison lost a chance at a bronze medal on his final shot in the men’s 10-meter air rifle. The 8.6 score, Harbison’s worst, dropped him from third to seventh in the field of eight finalists.

Soccer

The United States beat Tunisia 2-0. Jovan Kirovski put the U.S. ahead for good at 1-0 with 7 minutes left in the first half. The Americans are third in their group behind Argentina (6 points) and Portugal (4). The top two teams in each group advance.

Weightlifting

Americans Vernon Patao and Thanh Nguyen competed at 141 pounds, but neither lifted nearly enough to finish in medal contention.

Wrestling (Greco-Roman)

Four of the five Americans were prelims winners. Gordy Morgan was a 10-0 winner over Rudolfo Hernandez of Mexico at 163 pounds. Brandon Paulson pinned Joel Basaldua of Peru in 1:36 at 114-1/2 pounds. David Zuniga, a 136-1/2-pounder, won 3-2 over Ainsley Robinson of Canada. Super heavyweight Matt Ghaffari defeated Shermukhammad Kudiyev of Uzbekistan 7-1. Derrick Waldroup fell into the losers’ bracket with a 3-0 loss to Alexander Sidorenko.

Yachting

Off the coast of Savannah, Ga., American skipper Jeff Madrigali and his crew of Jim Barton and Kent Massey won the Soling race by 5-1/2 seconds over Russia. Only three of 16 scheduled races were completed before a severe thunderstorm forced postponement of the rest of the day’s events.