Six years after his two free throws with three seconds left gave Michigan the NCAA title, Rumeal Robinson came through in the clutch again.
Robinson scored 17 of his 22 points on 7-for-8 shooting after halftime Friday night, leading the United States into the gold-medal basketball game at the Pan Am Games with an 89-85 victory over Brazil.The American team of CBA players will face Argentina, 90-74 winners over Uruguay, on Saturday night in the same arena where host Argentina beat the U.S. volleyball team in a tense and emotional tiebreaker for the gold medal a week before.
Reminded he played for the national championship against Seton Hall in 1989, Robinson said, "Has it been that long? That makes me feel old. I guess I got lucky."
That set up the gold-medal rematch with Argentina, which edged the United States 68-67 in the prelims.
The U.S. team has not won the basketball tournament since 1983.
The Americans really have been giving it to the rest of the hemisphere at these games and set a medals record when Brian Olson (Colorado Springs, Colo.) won a bronze in judo. That gave the U.S. team 370 medals, one more than it earned eight years ago in Indianapolis.
The United States and Cuba each won two golds, two silvers and a bronze in track and field Friday. The U.S. water polo team beat Canada 12-3 and will meet Brazil for the gold medal.
Led by Pat Neder of Waukesha, Wis., with seven goals and Chryss Watts (Stone Mountain, Ga.) with six, the U.S women won the team handball gold 24-18 over Canada.
The American boxing team had a rough night, though.
Cuba's Leonardo Martinez stopped super heavyweight Lance Whitaker with a devastating left hook only 2:15 into their fight. And 17-year-old Fernando Vargas lost at 139 pounds to Luis Perez of Puerto Rico, 6-4.
Three U.S. boxers will fight for gold medals this weekend - welterweight David Reid and heavyweight Lamon Brewster on Saturday, light heavyweight Antonio Tarver on Sunday. Nine Cubans will go for gold after Cuba won 11 titles four years ago in Havana.
At the track, U.S. champion Kim Batten, of Tallahassee, Fla., won the women's 400-meter hurdles in 54.74 seconds, a second faster than she expected in her first outdoor race of the season.
Teammate Tonja Buford of Urbana, Ill., was second.
Meredith Rainey waited for a burnout by Brazil's Luciana Mendes to win the women's 800 in 1 minute, 59.44 seconds.
In the 400 hurdles, Eronildes Araujo led a 1-2 Brazilian finish. Everson Teixeira was second.
Marco Morgan of Raleigh, N.C., was fifth, the first time a U.S. athlete has not medaled in the event at the Pan Ams.