Aussies Get Uppity, Get Pounded

The Dream Team had its first international incident Friday night at Salt Lake City.

Playing against a physical and scrappy opponent, the U.S. Olympic team beat Australia 118-77 in a game highlighted by two altercations and a flurry of 3-pointers by the visiting point guard.

“We’ve grown up respecting those guys, but we won’t back down from anybody,” said Australia point guard Shane Heal, who nailed eight 3-pointers and confronted Charles Barkley, thereby supplanting Karl Malone and John Stockton as the fan favorite for one night.

When the game ended, Heal and Barkley exchanged smiles and laughs after a second half that was violence-free.

“I think they appreciated that we stood up to them. They respected us for that,” Hale said.

Heal, shooting from as far as 30 feet, was 8 of 13 on 3-pointers and 10 of 17 overall as he scored 28 points - the most by any opponent in the Olympic team’s four exhibition games.

Reggie Miller led the U.S. team with 19 points on 6-for-6 shooting.

Heal’s scrap with Barkley was broken up by the referees. It was one of two altercations that gave the game a meaner edge than the Dream Team had experienced before.

“The Australian guys, they didn’t care who we were. They came ready to play and they weren’t going to back down - and that’s why it flared up,” Stockton said.

The first tussle happened less than 10 minutes into the game when Malone and Andrew Vlahov, who played at Stanford, exchanged elbows while boxing out, then stared each other down to draw the refs over.

Barkley entered the fray later in the half when he barreled into Heal as Heal buried his fourth 3-pointer. No foul was called, and Heal bumped Barkley and yelled at him on the way back upcourt.

“I did foul him, but he called me a name and I’m not going to take that,” Barkley said.

Barkley sued

A New York man sued Barkley, seeking $50,000 in damages from the NBA player and the bar where they got into a fight.

Jeb Tyler, 23, from Spencerport, N.Y., alleges in a civil suit that Barkley punched him several times in the face and head at a Cleveland dance bar early Sunday. Barkley was in town for a game with the Dream Team.

Kipketer may run

World 800-meter champion Wilson Kipketer may run in the Atlanta Games after all.

The International Olympic Committee said that Kipketer, who was born in Kenya but lives in Denmark, is eligible to compete in the games for Kenya.

It was unclear, however, whether Kipketer would accept the arrangement. He has been based in Denmark for six years and indicated that he no longer wants to compete for his native country.

“The solution only depends on Wilson Kipketer’s answer,” IOC director general Francois Carrard said. “We are trying to reach him in Europe. It will be up to him to decide. He is free to refuse.”

Baseball team whips Japan

Travis Lee recorded a USA career-best six RBI, including a three-run homer, to lead the U.S. Olympic team to a 15-4 baseball victory over Japan at Millington, Tenn.

The U.S. team has won sixth straight.

Troy Glaus, an infielder from UCLA, got the U.S. team on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fourth with a solo homer, his ninth.