U.S. men hold off Aussies in final tuneup
They couldn’t shoot and occasionally didn’t defend. Definitely a performance the Americans should be relieved came before they got to Beijing.
Undefeated, but no longer unchallenged, the U.S. Olympic basketball team wrapped up its exhibition schedule with its toughest test, pulling away to beat Australia 87-76 Tuesday night in Shanghai, China.
The United States led by just four points nearly halfway through the third quarter and by seven points midway through the fourth against an Australian team that rested its best player, Milwaukee Bucks center Andrew Bogut.
The U.S. players still feel like gold medal favorites, but they hardly looked like gold medal locks during this shaky outing.
“Nothing alarming for us. It’s alarming when you lose,” said Dwyane Wade, who scored 22 points to lead the U.S.
American women ready
Standing on the podium waiting to receive their FIBA Diamond Ball tournament gold medals, the United States women’s basketball team had only one thought on its mind: This was only a dress rehearsal. The real performance begins now at the Olympics.
“Being here is great, but this wasn’t the real show,” said Candace Parker, who scored 12 points in America’s 71-67 win over Australia in the gold medal game in Haining, China. “It was like an audition for the Olympics. We passed the pre-Olympic test, but now we’re going to go and take care of business.”
Russians under fire
Arne Ljungqvist, the leader of the IOC’s medical commission, said seven Russian female track and field athletes, accused of tampering with their urine samples, appeared to be involved in a case of “systematic doping.”
Seven Russian women were provisionally suspended last week by the International Association of Athletics Federations in the doping scandal. They included Yelena Soboleva, a world record holder and world champion middle-distance runner who was favored to win the 800 and 1,500 meters at the Beijing Olympics.
“I think it is just frustrating to find that such type of cheating – planned cheating – is still going on,” Ljungqvist said.