USA Basketball wins third straight at Pan Am Games Sunday
7/29/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - (From USA Basketball) - It definitely wasn’t pretty, nor was it easy. But in the end a determined USA Men’s Pan American Games Team (3-2) made the plays it needed to come back from as many as 13 points down to defeat Panama (2-3) 77-74 Sunday afternoon. The win, which clinched fifth place for the Americans, was their third straight after starting the Pan Ams with two losses, including a 75-67 loss on July 26 to the same Panama team.
University of Alabama head basketball coach Mark Gottfried is an assistant coach for the USA team.
In a win filled with a number of big plays that were made by an assortment of USA players, the team featured a balanced scoring attack that saw guard Derrick Low came up big for the stars and stripes, finishing with 16 points, while Shan Foster (Vanderbilt / Kenner, La.) and D.J. White (Indiana / Tuscaloosa, Ala.) each finished with 14 points, and Maarty Leunen (Oregon / Redmond, Ore.) tallied 12points.
"Derrick Low came up huge. Derrick really became a leader of this team on the floor. I’m so happy for him. I think he learned a great life lesson. He didn’t play a lot early but when he got his opportunity he took advantage of it and was ready to go. Then he took it to another level by being a leader on the floor for us, making all the big plays. He actually got a big rebound too at the end, the smallest guy on the floor, to seal the win," said USA mentor Jay Wright.
In Sunday’s gold medal clash, Brazil (5-0) jumped out to a 32-15 first quarter lead and streaked on to an 86-65 win over Puerto Rico (3-2). In the bronze medal contest, Uruguay (3-2) trailed Argentina (2-3) 40-23 but rallied back to capture a 99-93 overtime victory. Canada captured its first win of the Pan American Games, defeating the U.S. Virgin Islands 69-60 in the seventh place game.
"This game was a real character game. I think it showed how much we’ve come together as a team," said Wright. "Nothing worked for us in the first half. Everything we tried, all of our scorers in the previous games couldn’t score and we just went to our bench. Our guys coming off the bench played a completely different style than we’ve played the whole time here and we just gutted it out. I think that just shows how much they have come together and how well they have learned to adapt together. It’s a credit to these kids’ character. That was a gutty win."
Playing to 20-20 tie through the game’s first 10 minutes, Panama opened the second quarter with a 14-2 offensive spurt that saw it open up a 34-24 lead.
James Gist (Maryland / Silver Spring, Md.) scored six consecutive points to right the U.S. and cut the deficit to 34-29 with 2:03 to go in period two, but Panama finished with a 9-3 run to take a 43-32 lead into its locker room at halftime.
Things did not immediately turn around for the U.S. when it took the court for the third period. Panama extended its lead to 13, 49-36, and coming to the aid of his USA teammates this time was the 6-9 Leunen. Led by Leunen’s 10 points, the American offense came to life and capped the third quarter with an 18-7 run that left them down by just two, 56-54, after the thee quarters.
"They were just running out on our shots a lot. So we started taking the ball to the hoop and good things started to happen. At our end we started getting defensive stops and getting out and run and that was a big key to our second half," said Leunen.
In the fourth quarter, the role of hero fell to Low.
"I just try and be aggressive during that time in the game. Point guards have to take on the leadership and you gotta do whatever you gotta do to win. I thought I had a pretty good rhythm because I had a little advantage over the opponent guarding me and I just tried to use that and make plays and fortunately I did," stated Low, who over the USA’s final three games averaged 15.0 ppg.
Low scored the fourth quarter’s first six points to single-handedly push the U.S. to a 60-56 lead. The two teams traded baskets from there and with 1:34 to go Panama owned a paper thin one-point lead, 71-70.
Going to Low, he beat his defender with a drive that put the USA back in the lead 72-71 with 1:13 to play. On the USA’s next possession, he did it again and was fouled on the basket. With the USA clinging to a 74-71 lead, Low missed his free throw and Panama hurried down court but missed a three, and Low came up with the rebound.
Forced to foul, Panama sent White to the line for two free throws with 19.3 seconds to play. White made the second of his two tries to up the lead to 75-71 and when Panama’s Jair Jamel Peraltab made his first 3-point shot of the game with 11.4 seconds left, Panama was back within one, 75-74.
Fouling Leunen with 10.2 left, the Oregon senior calmly drained both charity attempts to give the U.S. a 77-74 lead and Paraltab got off a deep three try that was off target and the U.S had the come-from-behind victory.
