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ST. PETERSBURG -- Puerto Rico completed an improbable run in the Goodwill Games' men's basketball tournament on Thursday night by drubbing Italy 94-80.
Italy had beaten Puerto Rico 83-69 in the preliminary round and was undefeated going into the final, but the Puerto Ricans took control near the end of the first half and never looked back.
The gold-medal game completes a tournament that saw its share of upsets, although the Puerto Ricans were not long-shots entering the tournament. Their victory was made possible partly by the underachieving American team -- which they never had to face -- and a sub-par performance by the Russians in their match against Puerto Rico on Wednesday. Puerto Rico beat Russia 69-65 in the semifinals.
The women's basketball tournament gets underway on Tuesday. France, China, Russia, Italy, Canada and the United States will compete.
In late boxing action, the Cubans throttled back to conserve energy at the semifinals but still reached five finals in an undistinguished night's competition.
The Cubans will now fight in 10 of the 12 finals over the next two days but they needed some help from a dubious-looking piece of judging which gave Olympic and world champion welterweight Ariel Hernandez victory over Russia's Alexander Lebzyak.
The Russian seemed to have the fight won when Hernandez was penalized three points for foul hitting in the second round but the judges gave the fight 8-6 to the Cuban, prompting loud cries of protest from the crowd.
The standard of boxing throughout the evening was bland and for the first time in this tournament not one of the 12 bouts ended within the distance.
(AP, Reuters)
Puerto Rico Snares Basketball Gold
29 July 1994
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