THE 1987 PAN AMERICAN GAMES : Cooper Provides the Spark as U.S. Beats Cuba, 85-80

Even in the retelling, the sparks fly, the flashing eyes light up, the crowd catches the enthusiasm. Live it again, Cynthia Cooper, just how did those three-pointers feel?

“Haaaaah!” she cries from deep in her throat, pumping both fists and nodding her head. “It’s great. The greatest feeling. At that point in time, we really needed to get started.

“We needed something to get us the intensity, to get everybody going. That’s my role on this team.

“A sparkplug.”

When Cooper came off the bench midway through the second half, the United States women’s basketball team was in serious trouble. Cuba was up by seven points and seemed on its way to the gold-medal game.

Instead, the United States won, 85-80, and the Cubans left wondering how they had lost such a firm grip on things with less than 15 minutes to play.

At that opportune moment, U.S. Coach Jody Conradt unleashed Cooper.

In a span of about five minutes, while the United States was outscoring Cuba, Cooper struck for a fast-break layup, turning it into a three-point play with an accompanying free throw; a three-point shot from behind the key; a jumper off a fast break after she grabbed a long defensive rebound, and, to top it off, another three-pointer that put the United States ahead, 70-60.

Then she sat down. Counting the three-pointer she scored in the first half, she was the team’s leading scorer with 14 points.

She didn’t start and she didn’t finish, but in between . . .

“I was pumped! I was ready to go!” Cooper said, seemingly ready to go again.

And how about the fists in the air? The back-pedaling, a la Cheryl Miller?

“That was genuine feeling,” Cooper said. “I’m not an actress. A gesture can get a team going, but if it’s a gesture from me, it’s because I mean it.”

Conradt said, “I want to add my congratulations to Cooper. Cooper and I have had the farthest to go to get on the wave length. It took us a while to do that.”

Conradt, who coaches at the University of Texas, the team that beat USC in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. championship game the year that Cooper was a senior, had a little bit of trouble convincing Cooper that she had to think defense and be patient.

Conradt said: “I never doubted that she could play and I never had any trouble with her offense. . . . I cannot take any credit for her offensive ability. She came with that.”

Cooper might not have played even as much as she has had it not been for injuries to some other key players over the last month. Miller, Cindy Brown of Cal State Long Beach and Kamie Ethridge of Texas all are missing these games because of knee injuries.

But Cooper is well practiced at being a great player overshadowed by other great players. At USC she played with the McGee twins and Miller. Now she’s on another team of stars, but she knows how to handle it.

“I won’t measure myself against Cheryl, but I know I’m a good player,” Cooper said. “I might have been shielded from doing more in college because of Cheryl and the McGee twins, but at the same time, they made USC. They brought it from the bottom to the top and brought us the titles.

“I was like an extra screw that fit in somehow and helped made it all work.

“Learning to play a role has been good, sort of. Everybody wants to be a star and score points. But the person who hangs in there, who does whatever it takes to win, that’s a basketball player.”

By her definition, then, Cynthia Cooper is a basketball player. One of several on the U.S. team.

As Conradt said, “This team has a lot of depth. It is a great deal of fun to coach when you can punch a lot of buttons, and there were a lot to punch today.”

Usually the U.S. team punches some big buttons inside, but Cuba seemed determined to stop the inside game.

Cooper said: “I saw from the bench that they were sagging in a lot on the post. I felt that my perimeter shooting would help the team.

“Other teams scout us and decide to collapse in on us because of our strong inside game. They were giving us the outside shot. They’re saying, ‘Here, take it. Make it if you can.’ ”

That’s where Cooper comes in.

“I’m quick offense,” she said. “When I’m on the bench, I’m not just sitting down there, clapping. I’m keeping my head in the game. I know I’m going to be ready when I get the chance.”