USA continues to win in World basketball
INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 4 (UPI) -- Team USA is dominating the World Basketball Championships as the Americans put the clamps on New Zealand in the second half and rolled to a 110-62 victory Tuesday that kept them unbeaten in the tournament and clinched a spot in the quarterfinals.
Michael Finley of Dallas and Paul Pierce of Boston scored 20 points apiece to lead the United States, which has won all five of its games and vaulted to the top of Group F.
After toying through the first half, Team USA held New Zealand scoreless for a 6:35 stretch late in the third quarter, rattling off 17 straight points to open a 72-48 lead.
Leading 75-52 entering the final period, the Americans again shut down the Kiwis for 3 ½ minutes, building their lead to 31 points. New Zealand scored just 20 points in the second half and shot 35 percent (23-of-65) from the field overall.
In the tournament, the U.S. is allowing an average of 71.2 points per game while holding foes to less than 40 percent shooting. It is outrebounding opponents by 12 per game.
Phoenix's Shawn Marion scored 16 points and Detroit's Ben Wallace grabbed 13 rebounds for Team USA, which next faces Argentina on Thursday in a battle of the only two unbeaten teams in the tournament.
Miami center Sean Marks, New Zealand's best player, sat out with an eye injury as the Kiwis fell to 0-2. New Zealand led by as much as six points in the first half and trailed just 48-42 at halftime. Finley scored 16 points in the first half.
In other Group F games, Argentina (2-0) kept pace with the U.S., knocking off Germany, 86-77. Andres Noccioni scored 19 points off the bench to lead five players in double figures for the Argentines, who have won all five of their games.
Germany's Dirk Nowitzki, the All-Star forward of the Dallas Mavericks and the best player in the tournament, had 21 points and 10 rebounds. But Nowitzki made just 3-of-17 shots, including 0-of-8 from 3-point range.
Also, Russia (1-1) kept alive hopes for a quarterfinal berth with a 95-68 rout of China (0-2). Despite the presence of 7-5 Yao Ming, the Chinese have virtually no chance of advancing.
In Group E, Puerto Rico (2-0) continued its surprising run with a 73-65 victory over previously unbeaten Spain. Carlos Arroyo and Antonio Latimer scored 18 points each for Puerto Rico, which was coming off Monday's upset of Yugoslavia and is the only unbeaten team in the group.
NBA Rookie of the Year Pau Gasol scored 16 points for Spain, which had won its first four games.
Brazil (1-1) fell from the unbeaten ranks with a 90-69 loss to Yugoslavia. Sacramento Kings All-Star forward Peja Stojakovic scored 19 points to lead a balanced attack for the Yugoslavs (1-1), who with five NBA players remain the biggest threat to the Americans.
Turkey (1-1) bounced back nicely with an 86-66 victory over Angola. Former NBA player Mirsad Turkcan scored 26 points for the Turks, who broke open a close game by holding Angola (0-2) to eight points in the third quarter. Turkey began second-round play with a loss to unbeaten Spain but still can advance to the quarterfinals by beating Yugoslavia on Wednesday in what should be a heated battle.
Lebanese went 0-5 and fired coach Johnny Neumann - the former NBA and ABA player - following a winless first round.
The top four teams from Group E and Group F advance to the quarterfinals, which begin Thursday.
Venus survives scare at U.S. Open
NEW YORK, Sept. 4 (UPI) -- Two-time defending champion Venus Williams narrowly missed her earliest U.S. Open exit Tuesday before getting past fellow American Chanda Rubin in the fourth round.
Williams held off the 14th-seeded Rubin, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, to advance to her 18th quarterfinal in her last 20 Grand Slams. The second seed had lost a total of just six games during her first three matches, but was stretched to three sets here for the first time since beating Martina Hingis in the 2000 semifinals.
The 22-year-old American won her eighth straight match against Rubin, but dropped her first set against her since losing their initial meeting, 6-4, 6-0, at Amelia Island in 1997.
Williams owned a 4-1 lead in the third set, but was broken in the seventh game as Rubin nailed an inside-outside forehand return for a winner. At 5-5, Rubin gained two break points, but hit a running forehand wide and finished a long rally by netting a forehand. Williams hit a service winner before taking a 6-5 lead with a forehand putaway. Williams reached match point in the next game, when she llaced a backhand winner down the line and closed out the match in just under two hours with a forehand approach winner down the line.
Three more former U.S. Open winners were involved in women's fourth-round action. The fourth-seeded Davenport, who triumphed here in 1998, recovered for a 3-6, 6-0, 6-2 victory over Russia's Elena Bovina, and two-time champion Monica Seles dispatched 1997 winner Martina Hingis of Switzerland, 6-4, 6-2.
Seles, seeded sixth, snapped a three-match losing streak to Hingis, improving to only 5-15 in their all-time matchup. The 28-year-old American will face Venus Williams in the quarterfinals. She is 1-7 lifetime against Williams, winning this year in the Australian Open semifinals, but losing in the French Open quarterfinals.
Hingis, who underwent surgery to repair torn and damaged ligaments in her left ankle in May, lost before the quarterfinals here for the first time since her first visit in 1989.
In the evening, Serena Williams battled No. 11 Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia. Williams advanced to the fourth round with a 41-minute rout of No. 20 Daja Bedanova of the Czech Republic on Sunday.
Dunn steps down as coach of WNBA's Storm
SEATTLE, Sept. 4 (UPI) -- Lin Dunn, who led the Seattle Storm to their first playoff appearance in club history this season, Tuesday resigned as coach and general manager of the franchise.
After posting a 16-48 record in her first two years with Seattle, Dunn led the Storm to a 17-15 mark this past season while finishing second in Coach of the Year voting.
Team vice-president Bill McKinney will assume Dunn's duties as general manager, and also oversee the process for selecting a new coach.
Dunn started her professional coaching career in 1996 with the Portland Power of the now-defunct ABL. In her second season in Portland, she led the Power to the Western Conference championship and secured Coach of the Year honors.
Neuheisel gets contract extension
SEATTLE, Sept. 4 (UPI) -- University of Washington football coach Rick Neuheisel apparently has agreed to a contract extension through the 2008 season.
The Seattle Times reported Tuesday that Neuheisel agreed to a deal earlier this summer and that an official announcement would be made by the school either later this week or next week. The newspaper did not report contract terms.
During a news conference Monday, Neuheisel admitted that "we have an agreement that I'm going to be here a little while longer."
The Huskies opened their season with a heartbreaking 31-29 loss at Michigan last Saturday. A costly penalty for too many men on the field set up a game-winning field goal for the Wolverines.
Neuheisel, 41, is currently working on the fourth year of a five-year deal he signed when he came from Colorado in 1999. His contract was modified last September after he lead the Huskies to a Pac-10 Conference title and a win over Purdue in the Rose Bowl, raising his base salary from $997,000 to $1.21 million per season plus incentives.
Vols lose another defender for season
KNOXVILLE, Tenn., Sept. 4 (UPI) -- The defense of the fourth-ranked Tennessee Volunteers has suffered another personnel loss as the school has learned that junior linebacker Kevin Burnett is done for the 2002 season because of a knee injury.
The extent of the damage was to be determined by an MRI on Tuesday. The initial diagnosis was a torn ACL. There was worry about the condition of the knee in the preseason. Burnett missed two of the three fall scrimmages and wore a brace on the knee for part of the preseason.
"Right now the plan, if everything is correct, is he'll have the surgery in about three weeks," Coach Phillip Fulmer told the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
Burnett, a 6-3, 236-pounder from Carson, Calif., said he knew his season was over the instant he was injured. Some 30 family members watched on television in Los Angeles in horror during Saturday afternoon's game against Wyoming.
Burnett will be replaced by Kevin Simon, a 5-11, 225-pound freshman from Walnut Creek, Calif. The Volunteers host in-state rival Middle Tennessee State this Saturday.
Kentucky F Parker kicked off hoops team
LEXINGTON, Ky., Sept. 4 (UPI) -- Redshirt sophomore Jason Parker has been dismissed from the basketball team at the University of Kentucky for violating undisclosed departmental policy. The announcement was made by Kentucky Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart.
Neither Barnhart nor men's coach Tubby Smith would disclose the nature of the policy that was violated because of privacy issues. Smith was unavailable for comment.
In 2001, the 6-8 Parker, a native of Charlotte, N.C., made the Southeastern Conference All-Freshman team after starting at center all 34 games. He averaged 8.6 points and 4.7 rebounds per contest, and recorded a career-high 22 points and 13 rebounds in the Wildcats' last game that season in an NCAA Tournament contest against Southern California.
In June 2001, he suffered a torn ACL in his right knee. He was scheduled to return to action in January 2002, but tore the ligament again last October just before the start of fall practice, known as Big Blue Madness, which caused him to miss the entire 2001-02 season as a medical redshirt.
