The Hindu : Sport / Olympic Games : Spain scrapes past China; Croatia beats Russia

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Spain scrapes past China; Croatia beats Russia

— PHOTO: AP

ON SONG: Pau Gasol (right) starred in Spain’s hard-fought win over China in a Group ‘B’ match.

BEIJING: Pau Gasol scored 29 points to lead world champion Spain to an 85-75 overtime victory over Yao Ming and host China in Olympic men’s basketball on Tuesday.

Spain, which finished out of the medals at Athens in 2004, remains unbeaten in Group ‘B’ with four points and next faces Germany on Thursday. China is without a win after two games, including a 101-80 drubbing at the hands of tournament favourite the United States.

Dramatic game

The Spaniards showed their quality in a dramatic game that had them trailing for much of the last three quarters.

Battling back from a 14-point deficit at the end of the third period, Spain’s Juan Carlos Navarro tied the score at 70-70 with two minutes to go.

China then went ahead on a jumper by Wang Zhizhi, but Spain pulled even again at 72-72 on a fadeaway jumper by Pau’s little brother Marc.

Spain raced to a four-point lead at the start of overtime, and with Yao of the Houston Rockets on the bench and the rest of the squad drained, China crumbled in the face of back-to-back jams by Gasol. Rudy Fernandez added 21 points for Spain, while guard Liu Wei led the scoring for China with 19, followed by 15 each for Wang and Zhu Fangyu, and 11 for Yao.

Greece beats Germany

In Tuesday’s other Group ‘B’ game, Vasileios Spanoulis and a dogged Greek defence curbed the Dallas Mavericks’ Dirk Nowitzki in an 87-64 win over Germany, setting the stage for a much-anticipated clash with the United States.

In Group ‘A’, Linas Kleiza scored 22 points to lead unbeaten Lithuania to a 99-67 victory over Asian champion Iran. Sarunas Jasikevicius added 20 points while Hamed Ehadadi had 21 points for Iran, which is winless after two games.

Meanwhile, World 20th-ranked Croatia, defeated European champion Russia 85-78. — AP

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