Missouri duo lifts U.S. past Uruguay

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- The U.S. men's basketball team was 85 seconds from leaving the Pan American Games without a medal.

While the Americans are not guaranteed a top-three finish, three free throws and a key defensive stop gave them a thrilling 74-72 victory over Uruguay on Monday -- and renewed hope for gold.

"The guys didn't want to come down here for nothing," Arthur Johnson said after leading the U.S. squad with 17 points. "We all just buckled down and did what it takes to win the ballgame, because we knew playing the way we were playing, it would have been an empty trip for us."

The Americans trailed 72-71 with 1:25 left after Uruguay's Gustavo Szczgielski converted a three-point play. Johnson made one of two free throws with 1:07 left, and his Missouri teammate, Rickey Paulding, sank one with 33.6 seconds remaining to give his team the lead.

With 16.3 seconds left, Stanford's Josh Childress grabbed a Uruguay miss, but was tied up, and the possession arrow favored the South Americans. Alejandro Muro then had the ball near midcourt when Seton Hall's Andre Barrett grabbed it, forcing another held ball and giving the U.S. team a key turnover.

"I saw him bring the ball down and that's right at my level. I was low enough already," the 5-foot-10 Barrett said. "All I did was tie up the ball and snatch it from him."

Paulding added another free throw, and Uruguay's final attempt missed at the buzzer.

Uruguay, led by Nicolas Mazzarino's 23 points, never trailed until early in the fourth quarter.

Monday's win put the Americans into the medals round after three games that went down to the wire. In its previous two games, the U.S. squad beat Argentina 80-79 and lost to Puerto Rico 86-85. The Puerto Ricans won the group and also advanced, as did Brazil and the Dominican Republic in the other sector.