PAN AMERICAN GAMES : Cuba Has Heart, but U.S. Prevails : Basketball: American men win, 92-88, but nearly waste 14-point lead after coming back from nine-point first-half deficit.

Listos Para Vencer (Ready to Win) reads the sign outside the arena at Sports City, and, for at least one half Saturday on the first afternoon of the men’s basketball tournament at the Pan American Games, it appeared that the host Cubans were indeed ready to triumph over the United States, a result that would have been at least as astonishing as their marathon and kayak victories earlier in the day.

The United States, attempting to re-establish its superiority in the Americas after losing in the final to Brazil four years ago at Indianapolis, prevailed, 92-88, but it had to overcome a nine-point deficit in the first half and then almost squandered a 14-point lead in the second half against an overmatched but game Cuban team.

“We’d rather have played somebody else first,” U.S. Coach Gene Keady of Purdue said. “We didn’t even practice here. We just came here . . . and boom!”

Less than 24 hours after the opening ceremony, it already was apparent that Cuban athletes, perhaps inspired by a pep talk given to all 609 of them at the Palace of the Revolution last week by President Fidel Castro, are extremely motivated for these Games.

So are their fans, who, enticed by free tickets, filled all of the available seats Saturday in an arena that holds 12,000 and easily drowned out a small U.S. contingent, including U.S. Olympic Committee Vice President George Steinbrenner, and a squad of Cuban pompon girls, who seemed out of place next to the giant mural of late revolutionary Che Guevara painted on the wall.

But it was the team of U.S. collegians that drew the first gasps from the crowd with a pregame dunking exhibition. Moments after Keady warned his players that there was a crack in the backboard, Duke’s Thomas Hill brought it shattering to the floor with a double-pump reverse dunk.

“There was not a great degree of difficulty,” said Hill’s college teammate, Christian Laettner, who awarded the dunk a four on a scale of 10.

“I don’t dunk that often, so I give myself a 10,” Hill said.

That was the last impressive move the United States made for a while. The game began after a 30-minute delay to replace the backboard, but the U.S. players did not start with it. Laettner went to the bench with two fouls after only 47 seconds, and the United States was called for traveling three times within the first two minutes.

With 7:12 remaining in the first half, Cuba had a 30-21 lead, and it was beginning to look as if the United States might be headed for one of those losses that are becoming so frequent in international basketball that they are no longer considered upsets.

Not since the 1986 World Championships has the United States won a major international tournament, having finished with medals other than gold at the 1987 Pan American Games, 1988 Summer Olympics, 1990 Goodwill Games and 1990 World Championships.

Steinbrenner, sitting in the first row of the upper deck with his arms folded, had one of those looks in his eyes that he used to get while hovering over his baseball team from the owner’s box at Yankee Stadium. It probably was a good thing for Keady that Steinbrenner did not have a telephone handy.

Keady said that the Cubans’ quickness surprised the U.S. players, but he added: “The main thing was that our kids were a little bit uptight, a little tentative. Maybe they were too ready as far as wanting to win.”

The United States regained its composure by halftime, when it trailed by only three points, and then dominated most of the second half with an aggressive inside game that resulted in easy baskets as well as foul calls against the Cubans. The United States had a 14-point lead on three occasions, the last time at 86-72.

Relying almost entirely on four players, who scored all but six of Cuba’s points, Coach Juan Carmelo Ortega said that his team could not match the U.S. depth. All 12 U.S. players scored, led by Ohio State’s Jim Jackson with 22 and Laettner with 19, and only Jackson played more than 30 minutes.

“After the first 10 minutes of the second half, we can say there was only one team on the court,” the Cuban coach said.

But as so often happens when coaches over-coach, the United States almost let the Cubans back into the game when it slowed the tempo to take time off the clock. The Cubans scored 14 of the next 16 points and trailed, 88-86, with 1:25 remaining and the crowd on its feet, chanting, “Cuba! Cuba!”

The score was 90-88 with 10 seconds remaining, but the United States used eight of them before Seton Hall’s Terry Dehere was fouled. Two free throws put the game out of reach.