European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 15, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Defense lifts . Into final russians Knock off Croatia in semis by Bill Barnar Toronto a dream team ii played its worst offensive game saturday night and still won easily by playing some Aba style defense. The undefeated americans advanced to sunday s Gold medal game of the world championship of basketball against rus Sia with a 97-58 Victory Over Greece. They shot 40 percent from the Field compared to 60 percent in their first six games and fell 24 Points Short of their121-Point scoring average. Defensively dream team ii held the greeks to 36percent shooting and 27 Points under the . Team s defensive average. It was t our Best Start and i was Dis appointed with the Way we played in the first half coach Don Nelson said refer ring to the americans 40-30 Lead and 31.7 percent shooting before could be been behind at halftime if they had made some shots. The missed a lot and i Hope it was because of our defense. I m not sure it slowed the game Down and bottled up dream team h s inside play world basketball blazers seek worlds see Page 29 ers forcing the americans to fire away from outside. The . Team shot 40 per cent from the floor taking a whopping 453-Point shots and 40 2-Point shots. We have a lot of 3-Point shooters and we took a lot of 3-Point shots tonight,.but i think our gamelan tomorrow will be to take Heball and Pound it inside said Reg Gie Miller who led the United states with 14 Points. We accomplished two things Nelsons id. First we rested some of the Guys who have been playing a lot and second we had a change of Energy in the second half and won by a Large the greeks seemed More concerned with holding Ovyn the score than playing a competitive game. They throttled the potent . Running game by keeping at least two players in the backcourt on of sense ultimately holding the United states under 100 Points for the first managed just two offensive re Bounds for the game and on some Occa Sions there were no greek players under the boards when a shot was , they tried something new against us taking the air out of Heball Derrick Coleman said. But i think we took our defense to another Victory advanced dream team ii into the Gold medal game sunday against Russia which beat previously undefeated Croatia 66-64. The us. Beat Russia 111-94 in a quarterfinal Friday night. The russians led by As Many As 14points before Croatia rallied within one but Russia held on despite an ankle in jury to Andrei Fetisow its Best big Man. Asked about meeting dream team i again russian coach Sergei Belov said we Are still celebrating this Victory but we will try to get ready for the dream team by the time the game americans averaging 59 Points in the first half and shooting better than 60percent in their previous six games missed 28 of 41 shots before halftime. The stars and stripes ports August 15,1994 Page 32 Only Greece s 34.3 percent first Hal shooting 12-for-35 allowed the United states to take a comfortable Lead. Mark Price scored 13 Points and Alonzo mourning and Joe Dumars 12 each for the United states while Shaquille Neal grabbed 16 rebounds As the americans Greece 58-31. Efthimiu Bakatsias had 12 for Greece which rested its Best players for sunday s Bronze medal game. Pea pack closes in it Price leads by 3 by Thomas Bonk los Angeles times Tulsa okla. The Gap i narrowing at the pea championship where the Best golfers inthe world took aim at Nick Price s five shot Lead and Well let s just say a few of them were sort of Lucky to finish. As it is Price toted a three shot Lead int nhe sunday s final round at Southern Hills where the year s fourth and final major title was to be though Price already has one the British open this still has to mean big pressure the kind that can melt your Confidence or your Sand wedge or both. The three players closest to Price Are Jay Haas who has t won a major Corey Pavin who has t won a major and Phil Mickelson who. You get the idea. Price has been anointed by Many Here As golfs next god but he shot a decidedly human 70 sat urday for a 54-Hole score of 202. He also lost two strokes off mislead. "-.". He decided to look on the right Side which seems to be rather Large. See Page 25 for saturday s Leader Board see world notes Page 31, for other Golf news i hopefully today was the one bad round i m going to have All week and i got away with even Par he said. Price is three shots ahead of Haas 40, who has won twice in the last six years. Haas greatest gift May be that he is resilient. He shot 68 saturday and survived his second triple bogey in two Days. I did t think it could happen again he said. Haas was t the Only one of Price s principal pursuers to have something bad happen to s 67 included a Dou ble bogey on no 12, while Pavi contributed a double bogey of his own at no. 14 on his Way to a 69.mickelson and Pavin were tied for third at 206, one shot behind Haas and four behind Price. Then there was a three Way tie for fifth at 207 featuring Greg Norman Ben Crenshaw and John s round was steady if in spectacular and he blamed his Overly conservative attitude. It was a strange feeling going out there with a five stroke Lead in a major championship he said but i so he did. Nothing like Haas though. Start with the Good when Haas birdied no. 13 and Price bogeyed no. 12, Haas was one shot off the Lead. Then came no. 15. It s a sort of routine 405-Yardpar 4, yet Haas played it anything out routinely. He pushed his drive and it nicked a tree and landed in the Short rough 180 Yards from the front of the Green. He knocked a 7-Iron through the Green arid the Ball landed in a Back Bunker. He chunked his Chi shot and the Ball landed in a Val Ley behind the Green. Haas stubbed the Chip and it just barely got on the fringe of thegreen./. Haas missed his putt and Heball rolled six feet past the Hole. He missed that putt too. Remade the next for a seven. I almost did t even want to Start adding it up he said. Sunday update Corey Pavin pumps air after his Birdie putt on 10th Hole saturday. Sunday s world basketball 3rd place Croatia 78, Greece 60 5th place Australia 96, puerto Rico 837th place Canada 104, China 76 Martin wins at the Glen Watkins Glen . A Mark mar tin recaptured his Watkins Glen magic with a dominating Victory sunday in the Budweiser atthe Glen Lascar Stock car race. Winning from the pole for the second straight year on the 2.45-mile, a turn Road course Martin also gamed his first Victory of the season. Chang retains at title Mason Ohio a Michael Chang wore Down Stefan Edberg to win the at championship 6-2, 7-5. Chang is the $1.72 million tournament s first repeat titlist since Mats Wilander captured the Crown in 1983-84
