U.S. Olympic Festival Roundup : East, West Gain Basketball Final

The East and West picked up victories Tuesday to advance to the gold medal game in men’s basketball at the U.S. Olympic Festival.

University of Pittsburgh sophomore Jerome Lane continued his sparkling Festival performance by scoring 22 points and grabbing 10 rebounds as the East knocked off the pre-Festival favorite South, 100-97.

Meanwhile, Stephen Thompson and Scott Williams, a pair of California prep sensations who are headed east for their college careers, were the stars as the West rolled over the North, 98-82.

In women’s competition, the South will meet the North in the gold medal game Thursday. The South beat the East, 87-77, while the North lost to the West, 74-67.

South men’s coach Bill Foster had no trouble finding the reason for his team’s loss to the East, which has won all three of its Festival games.

“Jerome Lane just whipped us,” Foster said. “He flat out did it himself.”

Seton Hall sophomore guard John Morton scored 16 for the East. Another guard, Texas Tech sophomore Sean Gay, topped the East with 23 points.

The South men, 1-2 in the Festival, play the winless North for the bronze medal.

The West men, who hadn’t won a Festival game in five years before this year’s event, finished the round-robin play with a 2-1 record.

Thompson, a 6-foot-4 inch guard, scored most of his points on rebounds and fast-break drives to the basket. He finished with 24 points, hitting 9 of 12 from the field. He will be a freshman at Syracuse this fall.

Williams, a 6-10 center who is bound for North Carolina, had 20 points and 12 rebounds.

In the archery competition, Val Rosas, a three-time All-America from Buena Park, scored the biggest victory of his career by upsetting Darrell Pace, of Hamilton, Ohio, and Rich McKinney of Gilbert, Ariz., for the gold medal. Pace won the gold medal in the 1976 and ’84 Olympics, and McKinney is a seven-time national champion and 1983 and ’85 world champion.

“This is by far the biggest win of my career,” Rosas, 27, said. “I still think Darrell and Rick are the best archers in the world. I just happened to shoot very, very well today.”

Rosas, who entered the final four rounds in fourth place, shot a perfect 60 for six arrows to start the 30-meter portion with 89 points. Rosas took third place after the 70-meter shooting and outshot the field in the final round, from 90 meters, for the title.

Rosas had 324 points, four ahead of Pace and six in front of McKinney. It was the first time since 1979 that Pace and McKinney were not 1-2 in the Festival.

“It was strange not seeing my name and Darrell’s in the 1-2 position in the scoreboard,” McKinney said. “Val is one of the top guys now, and we need to go after him. He is the new breed of archer.”

Pace added: “Neither Rick nor I has lost this competition in six years. I shouldn’t say lose because there are no losers. Someone just scores higher in the last round than you do, and Val was higher in the last round.”

Sharon Riley of York, Pa., won the women’s archery competition.

In boxing, two-time U.S. Amateur champion Michael Collins of LaPorte, Tex., knocked down Kevin Kelley in the second round and scored a 4-1 decision to win the 119-pound division of boxing.

“I think I put a lot of pressure on myself to win here,” Collins said. “It’s nice to win in your home state.”

National amateur 106-pound champion Brian Lonon, representing the U.S. Army, scored a 4-1 decision over Michael Carbajal of Phoenix, the 1986 national Golden Gloves titlist.

Other boxing winners were Kennedy McKinney of the Army at 112 pounds; Vincent Phillips of Ft. Riley, Kan., at 132 pounds, and William Guthrie of St. Louis at 165 pounds.

The South ‘A’ team, led by Jim Copeland, who won his second gold medal, took the cycling team trials Tuesday morning. Copeland, winner of the 120-kilometer road race to win the first gold medal of the Festival. The 24-year-old from Huntsville, Ala., was joined on the winning team by Darroll Batke of St. Petersburg, Fla.; Peter Davis of Boulder, Colo., and John Siebert of Littleton, Colo.

Jim Terrell of Milford, Ohio, won two races Tuesday, giving him four gold medals in canoeing. Terrell won the men’s singles at 500 meters and the 500 doubles with Eric Muhlen of Cincinnati in 1:57.69. Terrell earlier won the 1,000 singles and doubles, combining with Muhlen.

John Albert Faldo of Charleston, W. Va., and Noelle Porter of San Clemente, the second seeds, won the mixed doubles in tennis, beating the No. 1 seeds, John Boytim of Spring, Tex., and Trisha Laux of Roswell, Ga., 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.