Basketball: Yugoslavia sends US packing at worlds

The United States suffered their second humiliating defeat in a row today, losing 78-81 to Yugoslavia in the quarterfinals of the world basketball championships.

With the loss, the hosts were shockingly eliminated from medal contention and now go into tomorrow's classification games, with fifth place the best possible showing for the Americans.

The victory put the defending world champion Yugoslavians into Saturday's semifinals against New Zealand, 65-63 winners over Puerto Rico today.

It has been a stunning turnaround for the Americans, who lost for the first time in 10 years and 58 international games when using NBA players to Argentina yesterday.

The two upsets came after the US won their first five games at the tournament.

"I'm tremendously disappointed," US coach George Karl said.

"I think we played hard, we just didn't make any shots.

"But I'm very proud of my team and we can walk off the court being proud."

What was perhaps more stunning today was the crowd at Conseco Fieldhouse, which was once again relatively sparse and featured louder cheers from the large contingent of Yugoslavian fans than for the home team in the early going.

Perhaps rattled, the Americans fell behind 0-9 early on.

The cheering fans were certainly noticed by the Yugoslavian players.

"We felt like we were at home because there were so many of our fans here," Yugoslavia coach Svetislav Pesic said.

"We had an excellent start to the game because of them.

"We knew after last night's game that we would have to come out with the same intensity as Argentina.

"We beat a very good, complete basketball team."

The teams were tied 20-20 after one quarter and Yugoslavia led 40-36 at halftime.

The US rallied to lead after three quarters, but Yugoslavia dominated late in the fourth quarter to take the lead again, 72-71, with l:30 to play, and hung on for the victory.

The Americans were missing several of the NBA's biggest stars, all of whom backed out of the event for one reason or another.

But Karl refused to make any excuses for the stunning back-to-back losses his team suffered here.

"I don't want to lower what Argentina and Yugoslavia have done," Karl said.

"There are going to be some days when the best NBA players will have trouble in international competition."

While the Yugoslavian fans celebrated in the stands and on the streets, the players still realise there is work to be done here, said Pesic.

Yugoslavia were still determined to defend their championship.

"It was just one victory," Pesic said. "If we want to win the championship, we just have to keep winning."

Predrag Stojakovic led the winners with 20 points, while Vlade Divac had 16 points and 11 rebounds.

Paul Pierce and Andre Miller both had 19 points for the US, while Michael Finley had 12 points.

In other quarterfinals, Dirk Nowitzki had 20 points and eight rebounds to lead Germany past Spain 70-62, putting the Germans into the semifinals for the first time.

Germany led 40-31 at the half, only to see Spain go on a 21-6 run to lead by six heading into the fourth quarter.

But the Germans slowly chipped away at the lead and stiffened on defence, allowing just 10 points in the final 10 minutes.

Marko Pesic added 14 points for the winners, while Ademola Okulaja added 11 points and eight rebounds.

Juan Carlos Navarro had 21 points for Spain, which shot just 31 per cent from the field.

Argentina stayed unbeaten at the tournament, downing Brazil 78-67 to set up a semifinal against the Germans.

Brazil led 39-36 halfway through the third quarter as Argentina appeared sluggish after yesterday's heroics.

But a 15-3 run at the end of the third quarter made it 51-42 and Argentina increased their lead to 16 points in the fourth quarter before coasting to the win.

Fabricio Oberto and Emanuel Ginobili both had 19 points to lead Argentina.

Andres Nocinoi added 16 points, with five Argentina players hitting double-digits.

- REUTERS

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