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USA Knocks Off Mexico For Seventh Straight Americas Olympic Qualifying Tournament Win

In a physical contest that saw the USA (7-0 overall, 6-0 in second round) and Mexico (3-4 overall, 2-4 in second round) called for a combined 48 personal fouls and shoot 52 free throws, the United States, behind 16 points from Tim Duncan (San Antonio Spurs), dominated the final three quarters in the process of posting a 96-69 win over Mexico Wednesday night in FIBA Americas Olympic Qualifying Tournament second round play in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The USA, now assured of the number one seed in the medal round semifinals, will conclude second round play against host Puerto Rico in a 10 p.m. (all times are EDT) game. The two teams met in an exhibition game in New York on Aug. 17 and the U.S. recorded a 101-74 victory.

“I’m glad it’s over. It was a very physical game. The most physical game we’ve played since we’ve been down here....now we go on and play Puerto Rico tomorrow night,” said USA head coach Larry Brown (Detroit Pistons). “We didn’t make shots early, then I thought we got control and just before the half we got in a little foul trouble. When we had to put it together we did. I got to play a lot of people which is something that is good for us.

"We don’t take any of these games lightly, we use every game as learning experience because we have such limited experience in international competition. You have to learn to adjust and I’m proud of our guys because there were some things happening out there that I thought were pretty ugly and our guys handled it extremely well and that makes me feel pretty proud.”

The USA got off to a sluggish start and led for just 25 seconds in the first quarter. Tied at 13, Mexico scored seven straight points to take a 20-13 lead and at the end of the first quarter Mexico still led by seven, 26-19.

The U.S. regained the lead 34-33 with 3:54 to play before the break on a Duncan basket and the U.S. never trailed again. With Duncan scoring six consecutive points, the USA recorded a 13-0 run to pull ahead 45-33, and at halftime the U.S. lead stood at 49-40. After shooting just 8-of-18 in the first 10 minutes, the U.S. hit 10-of-17 in the second quarter.

Mexico tightened the game to 49-46 after sinking two 3-pointers in the third quarter’s first 45 seconds, but the USA regained the momentum with a 21-5 run that saw the U.S. advantage jump to 70-51 after three quarters. The Americans went on to lead by as many as 30 before settling for the 27-point victory.

Four USA players joined Duncan in double figures, as Allen Iverson (Philadelphia 76ers) scored 13 points, Vince Carter (Toronto Raptors) recorded 12 points and a team high five assists, Jermaine O’Neal (Indiana Pacers) tossed in 11 points and a game high seven rebounds, and Mike Bibby (Sacramento Kings) made 3-of-4 3-point tries to finish with 10 points.

“We are trying to build our team. People are trying to find their way. I think early on, people are trying to be unselfish and move the ball around and find other people,” said Duncan. “We pass up some shots and pass up opportunities that we usually would take. As it goes along, people get more comfortable and figure out how their games are going.

"We're moving in the right direction. We will see Puerto Rico tomorrow and with their team in this gym, it makes them 10-15 points better. We have to go out and match their intensity and get a win here tomorrow and then it'll be the championship games.”

Wednesday’s games saw Canada (5-2 overall, 4-2 in second round) squeak out a 78-75 win over the Dominican Republic(2-5 overall, 1-5 in second round), Venezuela (3-4 overall, 2-4 in the second round) shocked Argentina (4-3 overall, 3-3 in the second round) 97-92, and in the day’s most important contest, Puerto Rico(5-2 overall, 4-2 in the second round) pulled out a 72-70 victory over Brazil (3-4 overall, 2-4 in the second round) in front of its home crowd.

The final second round games will be played Thursday and feature Venezuela versus Canada in the 2:30 p.m. contest, Brazil and Mexico square off in the 5 p.m. game, while the Dominican Republic will face Argentina in the 7:30 p.m. game.

Ten men's national teams from North, South and Central America are competing in the 2003 FIBA Americas Olympic Qualifying Tournament and the top three finishers will qualify for the 2004 Olympic Games.

Peliminary round play took place Aug. 20-24 and the top four finishing teams from each of the two preliminary round groups advanced to the second ground where they form one group. The second round games are scheduled for Aug. 25-28, each team will play the other four teams they have not previously played. The top four finishers based on overall records will then advance to the Saturday, Aug. 30 semifinals, and the winners of the semifinals games will meet on Sunday, Aug. 31 in the gold medal game, while the losers of Saturday’s semifinals showdowns will square off in the bronze medal game.

USA Basketball has had to qualify for the Olympics through a zone qualifying tournament twice before, 1992 in Portland, Oregon, and 1999 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Americans in 1992 rolled to a 6-0 record, won the gold medal and earned a qualifying berth in the ‘92 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona. In 1999, under the direction of Brown, the American squad won 10 games in 11 days to finish 10-0 and in possession of the gold, while earning one of the two Americas Olympic qualifying berths.