BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS : Griffin, Reilly Give U.S. a Good Start : Boxing: They are impressive winners on a first day of competition in which favorites advance.

The U.S. boxing team put together an Olympic Games winning streak of two Sunday, with Eric Griffin and Pepe Reilly winning handily in the tournament’s first session.

On a day when a crowd of about 1,500 in the Joventut Pavilion included African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela and pro heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield, the U.S. team improved markedly on the first-day performance of the 1988 team.

On Day 1 at Seoul four summers ago, gold-medal favorite Kelcie Banks was knocked unconscious with one punch, thrown by Dutchman Rogelio Tuur.

“It’s great to get off to a 2-0 start. It could be a momentum-builder,” said Jim Fox, executive director of USA Boxing.

“I said Eric would get us off to a great start by winning, and that’s what he did today,” U.S. Coach Joe Byrd said.

The U.S. winners:

--Griffin, 24, the two-time world champion at light-flyweight from Broussard, La., chased long-legged Fausto Mercedes of the Dominican Republic all over the ring and won a decision, 14-2.

--Reilly, 20, a welterweight from Glendale, stopped outclassed Spaniard Victor Baute, but wound up with a swollen left eye.

The United States can boost its record to 3-0 today, when light-middleweight Raul Marquez looms as a lopsided pick over Nigeria’s David Defiagbon.

Sunday morning’s first session was noteworthy on two counts:

--It marked the first appearance in an Olympic boxing tournament since 1960 by a South African boxer. That attracted Mandela, who watched light-flyweight Fana Rhwala lose a 9-0 decision to Spain’s Rafael Lozano.

--And the Day 1 bouts were the first in the Olympics to be scored with computers.

Griffin, the 106-pound slugger his teammates call “Lil’ E,” employed all the skills that have kept him ranked the world’s No. 1-ranked light-flyweight since 1989, when he won his first world title in Moscow. He is by a wide margin the United States’ best hope for a gold medal.

He cut off the ring on Mercedes throughout the bout, and once he found the range, Griffin used unrelenting pressure. Mercedes’ offense consisted of an occasional left jab, which missed most of the time.

By the second round, the few American spectators in the crowd started a “USA! . . . USA!” chant, knowing full well Griffin was in complete command. An added feature of the computer: Judges’ scores are posted after each round, and Griffin had a 3-0 lead after the first.

It was 5-1 after two rounds, as Griffin picked up the pace. By late in the second, the once-fleet Mercedes was running out of steam and becoming a stationary target. “It was pretty easy. He was hard to hit because he didn’t want much of me,” Griffin said.

“My conditioning was good. . . . We’ve been training hard for two months and it paid off.”

Reilly was up against a hostile crowd in his debut. He was beating Spain’s aggressive but unskilled Baute handily from the outset. Nevertheless, family and friends tried to spur their guy with a chant of “VEEK-TOR! . . . VEEK-TOR!”

It didn’t help much. Reilly was ahead, 12-1, after one round and 18-6 after two. Reilly, a graduate of Glendale Hoover High, is a long-armed, somewhat awkward boxer with a big punch. His best shot Sunday was a right uppercut with one minute remaining in the second round that caught Baute on the chin and staggered him.

When Filipino referee Reyaldo Fortaleza gave Baute a standing-eight count with 1:10 remaining, it seemed as if the end was near for Baute, who had taken many hard punches to the head but hadn’t gone down.

Confusion reigned nine seconds later, when Fortaleza abruptly stopped the match, seemingly with no explanation. In the post-fight interview, Byrd said Baute cursed the referee and that Fortaleza disqualified him.

It went onto the results sheet as a RSC (referee stops contest) and not a DQ (disqualification).

“The referee stopped it because Baute had taken a lot of blows to the head,” explained Jerry Dusenberry, the only U.S. referee/judge working the tournament.

Actually, Byrd and assistant coach Osmar Analiz were more concerned about Reilly’s left eye. It was swelling rapidly in the third round and in the moments after the bout, before ice was applied. Reilly said he had difficulty seeing Baute’s third-round punches.

Both coaches said Reilly should be ready to box his quarterfinals opponent, Viatalijus Karpaciauskas of Lithuania, next Sunday.

Griffin’s quarterfinal match, also Sunday, is with Lozano, who drew Sunday’s loudest cheer when he beat the South African, Rhwala.

Griffin is on a track to meet Cuba’s light-flyweight, Rogelio Marcelo, in the quarterfinals. Marcelo had a surprisingly tough time stopping Mfamasibili Mnisi of Swaziland. Marcelo’s lead was only 9-3 after two rounds.

Not that Griffin cared much. He’s 5-0 over Marcelo since 1989.

Oddly, Sunday’s U.S. winners, Griffin and Reilly, fought each other in the 1988 Western Olympic trials tournament, when both were light-flyweights and when Reilly’s name was Jose Salazar. Later, he was adopted by his stepfather, Fred Reilly.

U.S. super-heavyweight Larry Donald was bracketed to box today, but the super-heavies were re-drawn Saturday and won’t box until Friday.

There was one near-upset on Sunday’s morning’s 12-bout card. German welterweight Andreas Otto, silver medalist at the Sydney World Championships last year, narrowly escaped embarrassing elimination with an 8-7 decision over Guyanan Andrew Lewis.

It was embarrassing enough. Lewis was in the bout until the end, and when the score was posted, whistles and boos erupted from the crowd.

Scores on Day 1 were uncommonly low, with 16 points being awarded to the day’s highest-scoring winner. Some scores at the Sydney World Championships and at major U.S. tournaments have been in the 70s for winners.