Texas Tech University Athletics
USA Basketball Advances to Semifinals with Win Over Italy
June 21, 1999 | Men's Basketball
August 7, 1998
ATHENS, Greece - Thanks to some inspired clutch play from USA guards Kiwane Garris (Grand Rapids Hoops / Illinois 97) and Michael Hawkins (Olympiakos, Greece / Xavier 95), the USA's wondrous drive for the gold medal at the 13th FIBA World Championship is alive and well as the U.S. persevered and somehow managed to record an emotional 80-77 victory over Italy Friday night in Athens, Greece. The win, the USA's (6-1) fifth straight, advanced the American's into the medal round semifinals where they will meet Russia (6-1), with the winner moving on to Sunday's gold medal game.
The United States was led by Hawkins' 16 points and six assists, while Wendell Alexis (Alba Berlin, Germany / Syracuse 86) added 14 points and Garris finished with 11. Additionally, Jason Sasser (Sioux Falls Skyforce / Caja San Fernando, Spain / Texas Tech 96) had nine points and Gerard King (Siena, Italy / Nicholls State 96) recorded nine points and a team best five rebounds.
"We were down six points with three minutes to go and then we made some key stops and made some big baskets. It's been amazing, I love what I see with this team -- their character. When things look bad they don't give up," commented U.S. head coach Rudy Tomjanovich. "The competition here is very tough and sometimes you're going to be down in a game and I think the sign of character is that you don't give up and you find a way to get it done. Well, we made some big offensive plays and more importantly, big defensive plays. We were putting them on the line because they were very aggressive, but I don't think they scored a field goal in the last seven minutes, but they got 13 free throws."
"Our biggest hurdle right now, our biggest thing, is to not let human nature take over. It's going to be natural that we're going to have a let down because of the emotion of this game. For a lot of this game they were beating us and then all of a sudden you come up with the win and it's such a release. So we're going to work our butts off as coaches to address that situation, the psychology of the next game."
"The good thing about this team is we just don't have one star. It's a team. On offense, situations are created and Michael Hawkins made a good move to the middle and Ki' (Kiwane Garris) is a good outside shooter and he used good spacing to get a shot there. Then we ran a play with a double pick...and the first option was Ki' and he was wide open and he nailed a 3-pointer. But the main reason I had him in the game was defensively. Ki' has done a really great job on different people in different games and Myers had gone through a couple of players and I just wanted him to have a different look. I thought he did a great job."
Although Italy did not score a field goal in the game's final 7:29, a U.S. victory seemed unlikely with 3:44 to go in the contest after Italy's Carlton Myers, who finished with 32 points and made 15-of-15 free throws, made two free throws to put his squad in front 75-69. But behind the play of Garris, who scored 11 of the USA's final 18 points, the U.S. fought back and outscored Italy 11-2 to claim the win.
Garris got things going when he scored on a drive with 3:08 to play to pull the U.S. within four, and Jimmy Oliver (Ciuda De Huelva, Spain / Purdue 91) scored his only points on two free throws with 2:45 to go to cut the gap to 75-73. Both teams missed shots on their next possessions, and after Italy missed again, Garris came up with the rebound and was fouled by Damiao Dilglay on the play with 1:28 to go. Garris made both free throws to even the game 75-75, and Italy's Myers missed a jumper with 56 second left and the USA's Brad Miller (Purdue 98) grabbed the board.
Hawkins gave the U.S. the 77-75 lead when he scored off a drive with 41 seconds left, but Italy tied the game 77-77 with 27.7 seconds to go when Myers made two free throws after drawing the foul on a drive. Italy pressed on the inbounds pass and the U.S. got the ball to Alexis who was quickly fouled. With 25.7 to go, Alexis calmly sank both free throws to give the USA the lead once again. Myers missed a 3-pointer with 5 seconds left and Garris again came up with the rebound for the U.S. Garris was fouled with 2.9 seconds left and made the first three throw to push the lead to 80-77, but he missed the second and Italy's desperation 3-pointer from beyond half court at the buzzer was well short and the U.S. had the win.
"In the first half my shots were going in and out, so I knew I was feeling it and it was just a matter of them going in. Coach called some plays where they (Italy) either had to switch off or they had to chase and get around picks and I was just getting wide open shots," said Garris. "It's kind of a relief (making the medal round). Back home people were talking about we weren't going to do this, weren't going to do that, now that we're there we have to take advantage of it and go for the gold and not just settle for a medal."
Trailing 41-38 at half, Hawkins scored five straight points to give the U.S. a 43-41 lead, but with 14:14 to play Italy was back in front 53-47. Alexis scored six points during a 12-0 run to help the U.S. to a 59-53 lead with 11:00 to play, but Italy roared back behind a 13-2 run to take control 66-61 with 6:50 on the clock. Myers sank three free throws with 4:57 to play, then made two more free throws with 3:44 to go as Italy took a 75-69 lead.
In the first half, center Gerard King scored the United States' first seven points and with 16:39 to play in the first half, the U.S. was up 11-2. Italy scored nine straight points to take its first lead of the game 14-13 with 12:21 remaining in the opening stanza. The two teams continued to battle back and forth, and, with the U.S. ahead 31-30, Italy's Gregor Fucka and Myers dropped back-to-back 3-pointers to push Italy into the lead 36-31. At halftime, Italy's lead stood at three, 41-38.
In other quarterfinals play, Russia (6-1) rallied in the second half and, receiving 31 points from guard Igor Koudellin, eliminated Lithuania (4-3) 82-67 from the medal hunt. Yugoslavia (5-1) held off Argentina 70-62 to advance to the semifinals, and meet Greece, which upended Spain 69-62.
In the classification play, Brazil, behind 19 points from Rogerio Klafke, defeated Puerto Rico 76-64, and Andrew Gaze's 33 points helped lead Australia to an 88-71 win over Canada. Brazil (2-5) and Australia (4-3) will meet Saturday to determine 9th and 10th places, while Puerto Rico (2-5) and Canada (1-6) will square off for 11th and 12th places. Finals to determine 1st through 8th places will be held Sunday, August 9.
ESPN2 will televise the USA's semifinal contest and is also slated to televise the gold medal game if the U.S. advances.
"We have a great opponent in Russia, they're big and physical. We're going to try and get a feel for who they are because they were in the other pool and we have only seen half of their game today live So we'll be up late tonight trying to put a good game plan together on those guys," said Tomjanovich.
1998 FIBA MEN'S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
OFFICIAL BASKETBALL BOX SCORE 8-7-98 Athens, Greece FINAL BOX
VISITORS: United States Men's World Championship Team (6-1)
NO NAME FG FGA 3P 3PA FT FTA OR DR TOT PF PTS A TO BK ST MIN 5 Michael Hawkins 5 7 2 3 4 4 0 0 0 2 16 6 2 0 1 32 7 Jason Sasser 4 11 0 0 1 2 3 0 3 2 9 0 0 0 0 26 10 Jimmy Oliver 0 2 0 1 2 2 0 3 3 2 2 2 2 1 1 29 12 Gerard King 3 5 0 0 3 3 2 3 5 3 9 0 1 0 1 16 13 Dave Wood 2 4 0 1 0 0 0 4 4 1 4 0 0 1 0 17
6 Kiwane Garris 3 6 2 3 3 4 0 2 2 3 11 0 1 0 0 16 8 Jimmy King 3 6 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 3 7 2 2 0 0 17 11 Wendell Alexis 4 6 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 3 14 1 2 0 1 23 14 Ashraf Amaya 1 1 0 0 1 2 1 1 2 1 3 0 0 0 0 10 15 Brad Miller 1 3 0 0 3 4 0 4 4 3 5 0 1 0 0 14 4 Trajan Langdon 9 Bill Edwards Team 1 1 2 TOTALS 26 51 7 12 21 27 8 20 28 23 80 11 11 2 4 200 FG% 1st: 13-28 (.464%) 2nd: 13-23 (.565%) Game: 26-51 (.510%) 3P% 1st: 1- 2 (.500%) 2nd: 6-10 (.600%) Game: 7-12 (.583%) FT% 1st: 11-16 (.688%) 2nd: 10-11 (.909%) Game: 21-27 (.778%)
HOME: Italy Men's World Championship Team (4-3)
NO NAME FG FGA 3P 3PA FT FTA OR DR TOT PF PTS A TO BK ST MIN 4 Davide Bonora 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 6 Alessandro De Pol 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 4 9 Giacomo Galanda 0 3 0 1 0 0 3 3 6 2 0 0 2 0 0 14 10 Carlton Myers 7 21 3 10 15 15 2 3 5 2 32 0 0 0 0 34 14 Roberto Cahiacig 3 5 0 0 0 0 4 2 6 3 6 0 1 2 0 19
5 Gianluca Basile 2 7 1 3 0 0 0 1 1 2 5 2 0 0 0 26 7 Gregor Fucka 5 8 1 3 0 0 2 2 4 2 11 0 1 1 0 30 11 Andrea Meneghin 4 9 1 4 0 0 1 3 4 4 9 3 3 2 0 32 12 Alessandro Abbio 2 9 1 3 1 2 1 2 3 1 6 1 0 0 1 22 15 Dilglay Damiao 2 2 1 1 3 4 0 2 2 5 8 0 1 0 1 17 8 Gianmarko Pozzecco DNP 13 Alessandro Frosini DNP Team 0 0 0 TOTALS 25 65 8 25 19 21 13 18 31 22 77 6 9 5 3 200 FG% 1st: 16-38 (.421%) 2nd: 9-27 (.333%) Game: 25-65 (.385%) 3P% 1st: 6-15 (.400%) 2nd: 2-10 (.200%) Game: 8-25 (.320%) FT% 1st: 3- 4 (.750%) 2nd: 16-17 (.941%) Game: 19-21 (.905%)
OFFICIALS SCORE 1st 2nd Final William Mildenhall (AUS) United States 38 42 80 Kostas Koromilas (GRE) Italy 41 36 77
