United States Defeated Argentina 101-81 to Reach Finals

The United States beat defending champions Argentina 101-81 on Friday night to earn a ticket to the gold medal game at the Olympics. The Americans, who won the title in 2000 but lost in the semi-finals to Argentina four years ago, got a team-high 21 points from Carmelo Anthony.

The USA stormed out to a 21-point lead and Argentina then lost superstar guard Manu Ginobili to a foot injury. Remarkably, Sergio Hernandez’s team fought back with inspirational leadership from Andres Nocioni and closed the gap to six but got no closer.

“We lost the chance to go for the gold medal game but today I believe we won the gold medal for the heart, the courage and the guts we put out there,” said Carlos Delfino.

“We lost our top scorer, Manu Ginobili. We were down 21 points against a team made up of superstars. We fought back and we gave everything we had on the court. In the end, the lack of oxygen and the fatigue caught up with us.”

Bothered by a knee injury that he suffered in the quarter-final win over Greece, Nocioni didn’t start but came off the bench to score eight points in the first half and also play his customary tough defense.

When asked if he had been fouled at the end of the half, Anthony said: “They called it. But it was a big play. We could not execute our plan in the first quarter and that left us with a huge deficit,” said Argentina coach Sergio Hernandez.

“If already it is difficult to play against a Team USA that has technique, incredible athleticism and unlike any other Team USA in the past – discipline - you can imagine if we are down 19 points. We paid the price in the final quarter because the efforts to get back in the game required a lot of energy. The zone defense worked at times, we tried everything. What I am left with is the character of my players, who play to the last minute and I am very proud.”


“Their zone gave us problems because we weren’t playing good defense. I think our defense leads to good offense, not just in turnovers but in us getting into an attack mode. I felt we didn’t attack the zone and we weren’t attacking defensively, either,” Krzyzewski said.

If the Americans play good defense, Krzyzewski says, they will be tough to beat in the final. The real heart of our team is playing defense, that’s why we’re in the gold medal game.” he said.

Now the Americans will face Spain for the gold medal on Sunday, a team they throttled, 119-82, in the preliminary round. Spain got to the gold medal game earlier Friday by rallying past Lithuania, 91-86.