The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • D12

Orlando Sentinel: PRODUCT: OS DESK: SPT DATE: 08-31-2003 EDITION: FLA ZONE: FLA PAGE: D12.0 DEADLINE: 23.24 OP: mblythe COMPOSETIME: 23.03 CMYK D12 Orlando Sentinel SUNDAY, AUGUST 31, 2003 FOR THE RECORD Basketball I Olympic Qualifying Argentina breezes past Canada SOCCER BEAT ROWING BEAT Portsmouth ties Portsmouth moved into third place of the English Premier League after battling to a 0-0 tie with Wolverhampton on Saturday. English Premier League Team GP GF GA Pts Arsenal 3 3 0 0 8 1 9 Manchester 3 3 0 0 7 1 9 United Portsmouth 4 2 2 0 7 2 8 Manchester City 3 2 1 0 7 3 7 Chelsea 3 2 1 0 6 4 7 Birmingham 3 2 1 0 2 0 7 Fulham 3 2 0 1 7 5 6 Blackburn 4 1 2 1 11 8 5 Liverpool 4 12 14 2 5 Charlton 4 12 16 5 5 Leeds 4 12 16 6 5 Aston Villa 4 1 1 2 4 5 4 Everton 4 1 1 2 6 8 4 Tottenham 4 1 1 2 2 5 4 Southampton 3 0 3 0 2 2 3 Leicester 4 0 2 2 4 7 2 Bolton 4 0 2 2 2 10 2 Newcastle 3 0 1 2 3 5 1 Middlesbrough 4 0 1 3 4 10 1 Wolverhampton 4 0 1 3 1 10 1 SATURDAY'S RESULTS Aston Villa 3 Leicester 1 Bolton 0 Charlton 0, tie Chelsea 2 Blackburn 2, tie Liverpool 3 Everton 0 Leeds 3 Middlesbrough 2 Birmingham 1 Newcastle 0 Fulham 3 Tottenham 0 LYNNE SLADKYTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS Moving ahead. Argentina's Emanuel Ginobili (left) of the NBA's San Antonio Spurs, shoots over Canada's Jesse Young on his way to 26 points to help his team advance in the Olympic qualifying tournament. Canada will face the loser of the late U.S.Puerto Rico game for an Olympic spot. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico Argentina qualified for the 2004 Olympics with ease Saturday night, getting 26 points from Manu Ginobili in an 88-72 victory against Canada.

The United States played Puerto Rico in a late game with another Olympic berth at stake. Canada will have another chance to qualify today in the third-place game. Showing none of the inconsistency that plagued Argentina throughout the Tournament of the Americas, last year's silver medalists at the World Championships broke the game open in the second quarter. Argentina led 33-27 when Steve Nash checked back in for Canada after a four-minute rest, but the NBA all-star was held in check as Argentina started to pull ahead steadily6 by doing what it does best moving the ball around on offense and consistently creating layupsandopen3s. "There is no perfect game, but I think they were extremely intelligent to read the Canadian defense and to perform as one on offense," Argentina Coach Ruben Magnano said through a translator.

A 3 -pointer by Ginobili, who had five 3s in the first half, made it 42-30, and another 3 by Ginobili got the lead up to 17 51-34. Argentina had 17 assists while making 20 shots in the first half. A driving dunk by Ruben Wolkowyski early in the third quarter boosted the lead to 24, and Andres Nocioni hit a difficult turnaround jumper while being closely guarded by Nash to make it 67-40. Ginobili found Luis Scola with a quick pass from the top U.S. fares well The United States won gold medals Saturday in the women's coxless four and men's coxed pairs, both non-Olympic events, at the World Rowing Championships in Milan, Italy.

World Championships At Milan, Italy MEN FINAL COXED PAIR 1 United States (Matthew Rich, Daniel Beery, Andrew Kelly), 7:10.11. 2. Australia (Luke Pougnault, Jonathan Fievez, Marc Henri Douez), 7:13.13. 3. Canada (Kevin Burt, Geoff Hodgson, Brian Price), 7:20.23.

4. Italy (Massimo Cascone, Piergiorgio Negrini, Alessandro Asperanza), 7:33.35. 5. Egypt (Ahmed Hassan Attia, Mohamed Moh- senAttaAli, Magdy Farrag Ahmed Farrag), 7:41.77. A FINAL LIGHTWEIGHT SINGLE SCULLS 1.

Italy (Stefano Basalini, 6:59.65.2. Britain (Tom Kay), 7:02.1 2. 3. Germany (Peter Ording), 7:05.36. 4.

Slovenia (Bine Pislar), 7:09.16. 5. Hungary (Csaba Denes), 7:09.65. FINAL LIGHTWEIGHT EIGHT 1 Germany (Bastian Seibt, Martin Raeder, Joachim Drews, Martin Hasse, Carsten Borchardt, Birger Schmidt, Matthias Hobein, Christian Dahlke, Olaf Kaska), 5:41 .43. 2.

United States (Thomas Paradiso, Eric Feins, PatrickTodd, Andrew Bolton, Bill Fedyna, John Wall, Angus Maclaurin, John Wachter, Hoseph Finelli), 5:43.95. 3. France (Vincent Faucheux, Fabien Dagada, Remi Le Flohic, Damien Margat, Alexis Saitta, Franck Bussiere, Nicolas Planque, Jerome Bandiera, Nicolas Majerus), 5:45.43. 4. Denmark, 5:50.65.

5. Italy, 5:50.70. A FINAL SINGLE SCULLS 1 Norway (Olaf Tufte), 6:46.1 5. 2. Germany (Marcel Hacker), 6:47.47.

3. Slovenia (Iztok Cop), 6:48.31 4. Czech Republic (Vaclav Chalupa), 6:54.86. 5. Australia (Duncan Free), 6:57.40.

A FINAL COXLESS PAIR 1 Australia (Drew Ginn, James Tomkins), 6:19.31 2. Croatia (Sinisa and Niksa Skelin), 6:20.79. 3. South Africa (Ramon Di Clemente, Donovan Cech), 6:21 .69. 4.

Britain (James Cracknell, Matthew Pinsent), 6:23.1 9. 5. Italy (Giu- seppe DeVita, Dario Lari), 6:24.74. A FINAL COXLESS FOUR 1 Canada (Cameron Baerg, Thomas Hwerschmiller, Jake Wetzel, Barney Williams), 5:52.91 2. Britain (Stephen Williams, Joshua West, TobyGarbett, Richard Dunn), 5:53.54.

3. Germany (Sebastian Thormann, Paul Dienst-bach, PhilippStueer, Bernd Heidic ker), 5:55. 13. 4. Australia (James Chapman, Nicholas Baxter, Stuart Welch, Stephen Stewart), 5:57.22.

5. Italy (Niccolo Mornati, Raffaello Leonardo, Lorenzo Carboncini, Carlo Mornati), 5:58.56. WOMEN FINAL COXLESS FOUR 1 United States (Liane Malcos, Whitney Webber, Caryn Davies, Wendy Wilbur), 6:53.08. 2. Netherlands (Sarah Siegelaar, Laura Rumpt, Helen Tanger), 6:54.42.

3. Germany (UlrikeStadlmayr, Dana Pyritz, Sandra Goldbach, Manuela Zander), 6:56.36. 4. Canada (Krista Stewart, Rachelle De Jong, Bonnie Fiala, Sabrina Kolker), 7:01 .35. 5.

New Zealand (Melanie Burke, Roslyn Papa, Nicola Cooney, Maree Kaati), 7:06.94. A FINAL LIGHTWEIGHT SINGLE SCULLS 1 Canada (Fiona Milne), 7:52.87. 2. Croatia (Mirna Rajle), 7:54.49. 3.

Germany (Janet Raduenzel), 7:56.53. 4. Spain (Lourdes Guillen Cruz), 8:00.85. 5. Czech Republic (Danie- laNachazelova), 8:06.28.

A FINAL SINGLE SCULLS 1 Rumyana Neykova, Bulgaria, 7:1 8.1 2. 2. Germany (Ka-trin Rutschow-Stomporowski), 7:21 .44. 3. Ekaterina Kar-sten, Belarus, 7:23.30.

4. Czech Republic (Mirka Knapko- va), 7:27.70. 5. China (Xiuyun Zhang), 7:32.64. A FINAL DOUBLE SCULLS 1.

New Zealand (Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell), 6:45.79. 2. Germany (Britta Oppelt, Kathrin Baron), 6:47.57. 3. Russia (Larisa Merk, Irina Fedotova), 6:49.50.

4. Britain (Rebecca Romero, Deborah Flood), 6:54.91 5. Italy (Elisabetta Sancassani, Gabriella Bascelli), 6:55.80. Wolverhampton 0 Portsmouth 0, tie WNBA I The Beat Sun sweep Sting in semifinal series Taj McWilliams-Frank-lin scored 16 points and Katie Douglas added 13 as the visiting Connecticut Sun beat the host Charlotte Sting 68-62 Saturday, completing a sweep of the best-of-three Eastern Conference semifinal series. Shannon Johnson finished with eight assists as Connecticut, formerly the Orlando Miracle, advanced to the conference finals against either Detroit or Cleveland.

"This gives our players the faith that we are going in the right direction." Sun Coach Mike Thibault said. Andrea Stinson scored 16 of her game-high 25 points in the second half for Charlotte, which shot 37 percent and lost its sixth straight playoff game dating to the 2001 WNBA Finals. "We had our chances, but the shots weren't falling for us," Stinson said. "There are some things we need to work on, but we'll be back." Charlotte trimmed a 17-point halftime deficit to 62-56 on a three-point play by Stinson with 1:43 left. Connecticut's Brooke Wyckoff countered with a 3-pointer with 1:10 remaining.

The Sting pulled within six on Allison Feaster's 3-pointer with 54.6 seconds remaining, before Johnson's driving layup made it 67-59 with 29.4 seconds to go. "We just didn't have enough at the end to turn it around," Sting Coach Trudi Lacey said. "We wanted to get the deficit under 10 earlier in the half, but it just didn't happen that way. This is a very disappointing loss." Feaster shot 3-for-l 1 and finished with nine points. Point guard Dawn Staley missed five of her six shots.

Connecticut charged to an 18-7 lead and built a 40-23 advantage by halftime on the strength on 52-percent shooting. Today, the Detroit Shock can close out their series against the Cleveland Rockers with a win in Game 2 in Detroit and the Sacramento Monarchs can sweep the four-time WNBA champion Houston Comets with a victory on the road. From Wire Reports Playoff schedule FIRST ROUND, (BEST-0F-3) EASTERN CONFERENCE DETROIT VS. CLEVELAND FRIDAY'S RESULT MLS BEAT Brown does the trick Chris Brown's hat trick helped New England to a 5-1 victory over visiting Chicago on Saturday. The Revolution improved to 6-8-8 hile the Eastern Division-leading Fire fell to 1 1-5-6.

MLS standings NOTE: Three points for victory, one point for tie. team's final two games after spraining his right thumb Thursday night in a second-round game against Puerto Rico. Team spokesman Craig Miller said Saturday that Iverson injured the thumb in the first half of Thursday's 91-65 victory. An X-ray and a CT scan were negative, Miller said, but team doctors have ruled him out of the final two games. A berth in the 2004 Olympics was at stake last night as the U.S.

team played Puerto Rico. This is the second injury to a key player for the U.S. team, which went 8-0 in the first two rounds. Orlando Magic star Tracy McGrady aggravated a sprained back in the final game of the first round and ruled himself out of the remainder of the tournament, but he returned Thursday night after receiving treatment. of the key for a layup that gave Argentina a 75-44 lead at the end of the third quarter, and Canada Coach Jay Triano rested his starters in the fourth.

"We didn't play well today, and they're better than us maybe one through 12," Triano said. "They shared the ball, they all made shots, they can all post up, they can all score from different positions. That's a good basketball team." The Argentine team celebrated for several minutes on the court, taking their shirts off and waving them to their supporters who sat in the upper deck of the end zone. Nocioni held aloft his country's flag. Argentina joined Serbia and Montenegro (world champion), Greece (host nation) and Angola (African champion) among teams that have qualified for Athens.

The Americans had to play their semifinal without Allen Iverson, who will miss the U.S. SATURDAY'S RESULTS New England 5 Chicago 1 Colorado at S.J. night night TODAY'S GAME K.C. at Columbus 7:30 p.m. SATURDAY, SEPT.

6 EASTERN DIVISION TPIsGFGA Chicago 11 5 6 39 39 30 MtrStrs 8 6 7 31 30 27 D.C.Un. 7 8 6 27 27 26 N.E. 6 8 8 26 37 38 Clmbs 6 9 6 24 27 30 WESTERN DIVISION TPIsGFGA San Jose 11 3 7 40 31 21 K.C. 7 6 8 29 36 31 Colorado 8 9 4 28 26 30 L.A. 6 7 8 26 25 23 Dallas 413 4 16 22 44 L.A.

atD.C. p.m. MetroStars at K.C. 8 p.m. Columbus at Chicago9 p.m.

Dallas at Colorado 9 p.m. SUNDAY SEPT. 7 N.E. at San Jose 3:30 p.m. LOCAL BEAT Detroit 76 Cleveland 74, Detroit leads 1 -0 NBA I The Beat Bryant case divides along racial lines A sexual assault charge against a glamorous all-star in any sport would catch Americans' attention.

But with Kobe Bryant, a black man, facing an accusation from a white woman, many Americans are viewing the case through the filter of race as much as sex or celebrity. While some say race shouldn't be a factor in the Bryant situation, recent polls show a wide divergence in white and black sympathies toward the Los Angeles Lakers player. Bryant is accused of assaulting a 19-year-old hotel worker at a Colorado resort in a mostly white community on June 30. Bryant has claimed his accuser had consensual sex with him. Two CNNL7SA TodayGallup polls conducted in late July and early August found that 63 percent of blacks surveyed felt sympathetic to Bryant, compared to 40 percent of whites.

Cleveland at Detroit Noon team packed up and moved to New Orleans last year. He draws large crowds at most of his Charlotte appearances and plays to potential ticket-buyers by sprinkling his speech with hip language and the latest slang. He patiently signs autographs and poses for pictures. He's also trying to hire Michael Jordan to join the organization and should get an answer from his pal soon. In Charlotte, Johnson almost instantly became the city's most high-profile black leader.

And the crowds that come to see and greet him are predominantly black. "I don't like to use the race issue, but he's reached an incredible plateau that few black men let alone white men, Asian men, any men, ever reach," Sting guard Dawn Sta-ley said. "He's a role model, and he means something to those who think there's no way they can reach those levels." From Wire Reports About 68 percent of blacks said the charges of sexual assault are not true, but only 41 percent of whites said the same. Charlotte owner impresses Bob Johnson celebrated his first game as owner of Charlotte's basketball teams by walking to center court and reciting lyrics from Petey Pablo's popular rap song "Raise Up." "North Carolina, take your shirt off!" he rapped as he twirled a Charlotte Sting shirt in the air. The crowd at the Sting's WNBA season-opener roared its approval of the man who paid $300 million in December for the Sting and a new NBA franchise, the Charlotte Bobcats, who begin play in 2004-05.

Johnson, the billionaire founder of Black Entertainment Television, has wasted no time endearing himself to a city that turned its back on the Charlotte Hornets and their owners long before the NBA Cleveland at Detroit 7 p.m., if nec. CHARLOTTE VS. CONN. THURSDAY'S RESULT Connecticut 68 Charlotte 66 SATURDAY'S RESULT Charlotte 62, Conn, wins 2-0 WESTERN CONFERENCE L.A. VS.

MINNESOTA THURSDAY'S RESULT Minnesota 74 Los Angeles 72, Minn, leads 1 -0 SATURDAY'S RESULT Minnesota at Los Angeles 10 p.m. MONDAY Minnesota at Los Angeles 10 p.m., if nec. H0U. VS. SACRAMENTO FRIDAY'S RESULT Houston 59, Sacr.

leads 1 -0 TODAY Sacramento at Houston 4:30 p.m. Hessnes hat trick sinks Stetson Junior Nikkie Hessney scored three goals in a three-minute span in the second half to lead the University of Vermont women's soccer team past visiting Stetson 4-0 in the opening round of the Vermont Soccer Classic. The game was the season opener for both clubs. Both teams played a scoreless first half. Vermont freshman Cassandra Van-Leeuwen kick-started the UVM offense with her first career goal as a Catamount in the 51 st minute.

Florida upsets Penn State Cherry Pickman and Crystal Frimpong each scored to lead No. 21 Florida to a 2-1 victory over No. 7 Penn State in women's soccer action in Gainesville. FSU volleyball team whips Michigan Florida State (2-1) completed the Florida State Invitational with a 3-1 (30-22, 30-25, 21-30, 30-21 victory over Michigan. The Seminoles were led by Aisha Carr's 10 kills and Jennifer Anderson's 22 assists, while Jessica Skower recorded 1 3 assists in the win.

In a tough battle with the Wolverines, the Seminoles broke a 14-14 tie to take the first game 30-22. FSU went on a late 1 0-6 run to put the game out of reach. Game 2 was close the whole way but Florida State broke a 19-19 tie with an 11-6 run to win 30-25. In Game 4, the Seminoles rushed out to an early 6-1 lead and increased their lead to 1 5-8 on their way to a 30-21 win and the match victory. Carr led the Seminoles offense with 10 kills and eight digs, while freshman Cas-sie McLaughlin also had eight digs defensively.

Anderson controlled the offense once again for FSU with 22 assists. Florida State will travel to San Marcos, Texas, next weekend for the Texas State Tournament. Stetson drops 2 matches The Stetson volleyball team dropped its final two matches at the Best Western Invitational in Tampa, falling 3-0 to host South Florida and 3-0 to Loyola-Chicago. The Bulls (1 -1) won 30-21 30-21 30-19, and the Ramblers won 30-20, 30-20, 30-28. The Hatters (0-3) had an opportunity to take Game 3 from Loyola-Chicago.

A kill from DeeAnn Dempsey late in the match gave Stetson a 26-23 lead. But the Ramblers won the next five points and seven of the final nine to come away with the victory. Kira Smedley led the Hatters with 13 kills for the match. Nichol Amberg led all hitters with 14 kills for Loyola-Chicago. Florida volleyball rolls over BYU With a 3-0 (30-24, 30-19, 30-21) sweep of BYU, the No.

3 Florida volleyball team won the Campus USA Credit Union Invitational in Gainesville. The Gators (4-1) had three players in double digits in kills, including tournament MVP Aury Cruz. Cruz scored 21 points on 1 6 kills, two aces and three blocks for the match, and for the weekend Cruz tallied 47 kills on a 5.22 kills-per-game clip. The senior also added 12 digs against BYU. Sherri Williams and Benavia Jenkins, who were also named to the all-tournament team, each added double-digit kills of 45 and 10, respectively, to pace the Gators to their fourth straight victory.

Rollins falls twice Rollins volleyball team lost two matches on the second day of the St. Mary's University tournament in San Antonio, Texas. The Tars (0-4) lost to 1 7th-ranked Northwood (Mich.) University (1 -2) 25-30, 1 7-30, 23-30 and to Concordia-St. Paul (3-1 27-30, 30-32 and 1 9-30. In the afternoon session, the Tars lost to Northwood in three games.

Serving errors led to the Rollins' downfall as it committed seven in Game 1 of the matchup with the Timberwolves. NU took Game 1, 30-24. After dropping second game 30-17, the Tars fought back against the T'Wolves in Game 3 and had it tied at 19-19. Northwood's offensive attack proved to be too much as it ended the game on an 11-5 run. Pioneers shine at Lake Mary Summertime Run The PioneersRunners Track Club, led by Corsica Campbell's seventh-place finish, won the girls 14-18-year-old portion of the Lake Mary Summertime Run at Lake Mary High School.

The PioneersRunners Track Club finished with 78 points to the Oviedo Harriers Track Club's 83. In the boys 14-18-year-old race Flagler Palm Coast Track Club dominated, posting a score of 30 points. The Edgewater Track Club was a distant second at 1 3 1 points. Andrew Chuplis, who ran unattached, won the event with a time of 16:32.89. Bryan Christian, of Lyman Blue, finished second at 16:45.19 From Staff Reports TUESDAY Sacramento at Houston 9 p.m., if nec.

S0CCer I The Beat Beckham scores in Spanish league debut David Beckham took just two minutes to score in his Spanish league debut Saturday, getting a goal in defending champion Real Madrid's 2-1 victory over visiting Real Betis in the season-opener. Beckham scored from close range off a low cross from Brazilian ace Ronaldo, his second goal for his new club in three days. He headed in a goal in Madrid's 3-0 Spanish Super-cup win over Mallorca on Wednesday. This was Beckham's third goal in his eight games with Real Madrid. "It's probably the quickest goal I've ever scored," Beckham said.

"So it's nice to do it here and on the first day of the season. Hopefully, Ronaldo will keep doing it for me and I'll keep doing it for him." Ronaldo netted the winning goal in the 61st minute from a move begun by Beckham. Betis had tied the score on a goal by Juanito Gutierrez in the first half. Before a crowd of 65,000, Beckham was more involved in the flow of play than in his two previous games for Madrid in Spain. He hit the crossbar and drew applause with his swerving crosses from the right.

Revolution rip Fire Chris Brown scored three goals as the New England Revolution snapped a nine-match winless streak with a 5-1 MLS victory against the Chicago Fire. the 2006 World Cup. Marco Etcheverry also scored for D.C, which erased an early 1-0 deficit. Chelsea held to tie Chelsea failed to win for the first time this season in the Premier League, with Andy Cole of Blackburn scoring twice in a 2-2 tie in London. In other Premier League games, it was: Aston Villa 3, Leicester Bolton 0, Charlton Leeds 3, Middlesbrough and Wolverhampton 0, Portsmouth 0.

Arsenal and Manchester United lead the standings with 3-0 records and nine points. Both play Sunday Arsenal at Manchester City and Man United at Southampton. From Staff Reports Brown had just two goals in 18 matches with Kansas City before being traded to New England on Aug. 20. He scored in the 7th, 63rd and 66th minutes on Saturday.

The Revolution was 0-5-4 in their previous nine matches since beating Colorado on June 28. Andy Williams scored his second goal of the season in the 14th minute to tie it for Chicago. The Fire had a seven-match unbeaten streak snapped. D.C. United wins Earnie Stewart scored twice and D.C.

United beat El Salvador 3-1 in an exhibition match in Washington. Alfredo Pacheco scored for El Salvador, which is rebuilding its team in preparation for 1 COLORSTRIP: I.