Temple University Athletics
USA MEN REBOUND TO CLAIM 80-78 VICTORY AND WORLD UNIVERSITY GAMES BRONZE MEDAL
8.31.01 | Men's Basketball
"This was a real gutty performance on the part of our players," said USA and Penn State University head coach Jerry Dunn. "Last night was a very
emotional and hard fought game. And a very tough one to lose. Any time that happens, you're very vulnerable to a let down. I'm very proud of the
way our guys came out and showed an awful lot of character and fortitude."
With 6:34 remaining in the contest the United States held an 11-point,76-65, upper hand. Germany then began to put the pressure on defensively, while its offense chipped away at the gap and at 3:07, the U.S. lead had been trimmed to 76-75. Roger Mason, Jr. (Virginia / Silver Spring, Md.)
made two free throws at 2:44 to increase it to 78-75. Over the next two minutes neither team was able to convert and with 44 seconds to go Germany's Lars Grubler, who finished the game shooting 13-of-16 from the charity stripe, was sent to the line and made good on both attempts. A 3-point attempt by Dixon hit the rim and Chris Owens (Texas Duncanville, Texas) beat the Germans to the rebound and quickly passed it outside to Barrett as the clock wound down.
"I just wanted to win the game," said Owens on why he kicked it out instead of attempting another shot."It was tight, we were struggling to hit shots
so at the time I just wanted push it out to let the time run out."
Barrett held onto the pass and was chased around before being fouled by the Germans with 12.2 seconds to go. Dunn called for a time out and when the teams returned to the floor, Barrett swished in both attempts to make it a three-point game, 80-77.
"Under normal circumstances I would have called a time out after he made the two free throws, but you can't do that with the international rules," stated Dunn. "So I wanted to make sure that we understood what the situation was. There were 12 seconds left on the clock, we were up by one and I wanted to make sure these guys knew what all the scenarios were going to be so we
could set up our defense. I felt confident that Andre would make at least one of them and that was really important.I knew we didn't want to give up
a three going down on the other end, so it was an opportune time to call the time out."
"The first thing I thought was that if I missed these, we probably wouldn't get a medal and everybody would be upset at me back home," said Barrett on making both his free throws with 12.2 seconds to go. "I didn't want to let the team down. Coach did a good thing by calling the time out.I had time to think about it and take a deep breath before going out there and knocking down the shots."
The United States pressured Germany and with two tenths of a second left on the clock, Lynn Greer (Temple / Philadelphia, Pa.) stumbled and ran into Germany's Pascal Roller, sending him to the line. After making his first, Roller intentionally missed the second and Germany came up with the rebound, but time expired with the U.S. holding onto the bronze medal and the 80-78 victory.
Germany jumped out to a 16-6 lead in the first 4:28 of the contest and the United States spent the rest of the first quarter battling back into the
game and by the time the first quarter was over, the U.S. trailed 22-19. The Americans put on the defensive pressure in the second quarter and
Germany was unable to convert on its first nine possessions and with 6:00 to go in the half the USA was on top 30-22. At 4:29 the USA was up 33-25, but Germany began to make a comeback and cut the gap to 40-39 at halftime.
The third quarter saw four lead changes and two knotted scores before the USA took the lead for good after Barrett went coast to coast to give the USA a 51-50 edge with 4:52 to go in the third. The Americans, who received a pair of treys apiece from Dixon and Greer in the third quarter's final
minutes, never again trailed and at the end of 30 minutes held a 69-59 upper hand. The United States upped its lead to 75-63 at the 7:28 mark in the
fourth, but at 6:43, Earl Barron (Memphis / Clarksdale, Miss.) fouled out of the game and Germany notched another two points from the line to make it 75-65.
In addition to Dixon's 24 points, the United States' bronze medal effort was aided by 13 from Mason, and Melvin Ely (Fresno State / Harvey, Ill.) and Greer pitched in 10 points apiece. Ely grabbed a team high seven rebounds and he and Dixon notched three steals apiece.
The United States shot just 39.7 percent from the field, while Germany was accurate on 46.0 percent of its shots. The USA held a slim 35-34 rebounding edge and forced 19 turnovers, while only committing nine of its own.
Lonny Baxter (Maryland / Silver Spring, Md.), who averaged an even 15 points a game through the first six games, was sick with gastroenteritis and did not play.
ADDITIONAL USA TEAM QUOTES
Jerry Dunn, Penn State University head coach
"It's really important to remember that this game is such an emotional one. The peaks and valleys that you experience can really send you into a tailspin. Last night was about as low as I've ever felt after a loss and certainly for these young men as well. But one of the toughest things you can do as a coach is to find a way to get your guys going when you have to play within 24 hours after a loss like that. One of the positives about it is that you've got this bad taste in your mouth and you have the opportunity to get it out. And we were able to do it with 11 guys. We had one guy who was sick and these 11 guys that we had today really pulled together and gave us a great effort.
Lynn Greer, Temple University
"It always feels good to come home with something. We didn't get the gold, but we were fortunate enough to get the bronze. It came down to a last
second play, just like the China game did, but luckily things went our way."
OFFICIAL BASKETBALL BOX SCORE -- G A M E T O T A L S
Germany vs USA
8/31/01 3:00 p.m. at Beijing, China
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VISITORS: Germany (5-2)
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
No. NAME FG FGA FG FGA FT FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
04 Roller * 5 12 2 7 3 4 0 7 7 1 15 4 4 0 0 40
09 Hennen * 3 9 1 1 2 5 2 5 7 3 9 3 3 0 0 33
13 Maras * 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
14 Kolodziejski * 5 10 3 5 6 8 0 2 2 3 19 1 2 0 0 30
15 Grubler * 4 4 0 0 13 16 0 10 10 2 21 1 6 0 0 35
06 Buchmiller 1 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 1 0 0 0 11
07 Seggelke 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
08 Ingerfurth 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 6
10 Gieseck 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 3
11 Huber-Saff. 4 7 0 0 1 2 3 3 6 4 9 0 2 1 0 27
12 Klink 1 4 1 2 0 0 0 1 1 1 3 1 0 0 1 12
TEAM ................................ 0 0 0 2
TOTALS 23 50 7 17 25 35 5 29 34 18 78 11 19 1 1 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 13-28 .464 2nd Half: 10-22 .455 Game: .460 DEADBALL
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 4-11 .406 2nd Half: 3- 6 .500 Game: .412 REBOUNDS
F Throw % 1st Half: 9-14 .643 2nd Half: 16-21 .762 Game: .714 5
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HOME TEAM: USA (7-1)
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
No. NAME FG FGA FG FGA FT FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
05 A. Barrett * 2 6 1 3 2 2 1 3 4 1 7 1 0 0 1 26
09 J. Dixon * 9 20 5 13 1 2 3 0 3 2 24 1 1 0 3 27
10 C. Owens * 2 8 0 0 2 6 1 3 4 4 6 1 2 0 1 27
14 R. Mason, Jr. * 5 10 1 2 2 2 2 3 5 1 13 1 1 0 0 25
15 M. Ely * 5 11 0 0 0 2 4 3 7 3 10 0 3 0 3 28
04 D. Dickau 1 5 0 2 0 0 0 1 1 2 2 0 1 0 1 13
06 L. Greer 3 7 2 4 2 2 1 1 2 1 10 0 1 0 1 12
07 E. Barron 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 5 2 0 0 0 0 5
08 A. Barbour 3 8 0 1 0 0 4 2 6 2 6 0 0 0 0 15
11 J. Reed 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5
12 T. Smith 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 3 0 0 0 0 1 17
13 L. Baxter DNP
TEAM ................................. 0 0 0
TOTALS 31 78 9 25 9 16 17 18 35 24 80 4 9 0 11 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 17-39 .436 2nd Half: 14-39 .359 Game: .397 DEADBALL
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 3-12 .250 2nd Half: 6-13 .462 Game: .360 REBOUNDS
F Throw % 1st Half: 3- 8 .375 2nd Half: 6- 8 .750 Game: .563 4
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OFFICIALS: Dimitrijevic (YUG), Junzhou (CHN)
TECHNICAL FOULS:
Germany - none
USA - none
ATTENDANCE: 1,500
SCORE BY PERIODS: 1st 2nd 3rd 4th
OT1 OT2 TOTAL Germany 22 17 20
19 78 USA 19 21
29 11 80
2001 Men's World University Games Bronze Medal Game
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