U.S. Goes Overtime for Gold

Who needs the Dream Team? It only took an extra five minutes for the United States to reclaim Goodwill Games gold.

Andre Miller of Utah took command down the stretch and the United States, which hadn’t won a Goodwill basketball gold medal since the inaugural games in 1986, beat Australia, 93-85, in overtime Friday night for the championship.

It was the first major international men’s title for a U.S. amateur team since the 1986 world championships, which took place after the Goodwill Games in Moscow.

The final victory didn’t come easy for this U.S. team, but nothing did the whole tournament.

Miller, who led the Utes to the Final Four in March, scored 10 of his 18 points in the final four minutes of regulation and the overtime. He tied the score with the final basket of regulation with 1:08 to play, and scored the first basket of overtime, and the United States led thereafter.

Wally Szczerbiak of Miami of Ohio and Elton Brand of Duke each had 15 points for the U.S., while James Posey of Xavier added 13.

In the bronze medal game, Lithuania beat Puerto Rico, 119-75.

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Mark Ruiz, already the best U.S. platform diver at 19, made his first big splash off the springboard by winning the bronze medal behind a pair of Chinese divers.

Ruiz nailed his last dive, a reverse 2 1/2 somersault with a half-twist, scoring 74.40 points to finish with 395.52, just ahead of Andreas Wels of Germany.

Yu Zhoucheng won the gold and Zhou Yilin the silver.

America’s other teen-age hope, Troy Dumais of Ventura, finished 10th in the 12-man field.

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Karch Kiraly and Adam Johnson of the United States will play for a beach volleyball medal. They narrowly beat the No. 2 U.S. team of Sinjin Smith and Ricci Luyties, 16-14, to finish their preliminary group 2-1.

The world’s top-rated men’s team, Guilherme Marques and Para Ferreira of Brazil, rallied from a 6-0 deficit to finish the preliminary rounds unbeaten with a 15-11 victory over Canada’s John Child and Mark Heese Friday.

Also advancing to today’s semifinals were Julien Prosser and Leo Zahner of Australia, who beat Martin Conde and Esteban Martinez of Argentina, 15-7.

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Surgery is scheduled today for a Chinese gymnast paralyzed during a practice vault at the Goodwill Games.

Doctors will try to stabilize the spine of Sang Lan, 17, in a six-hour operation at Nassau County Medical Center, according to Dr. Brock Schnebel, the games’ chief medical officer.

Schnebel said Sang’s condition was unchanged from when she was brought to the hospital Tuesday night after string the mat with her head, fracturing and dislocating two neck vertebrae and leaving her with no movement in her legs. Doctors said it was unlikely she would walk again.

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The figure skating competition doesn’t start until late next week, but it lost a big name when former U.S. national champion Nicole Bobek withdrew, saying she need more time to recuperate from a nagging injury and to get reacquainted with coach Richard Callaghan.