Gaze shoots Australia into semifinals

SYDNEY, SEPT. 28. Andrew Gaze scored 27 points today to drive Australia into the Olympic men's basketball semifinals with a thrilling 65-62 quarterfinals win over Italy.

In the semifinals, Australia will meet France, which edged out Canada 68-63. The United States defeated Russia 85-70 to set up a semifinal clash with Lithuania, which downed Yugoslavia 76-63.

Against Italy, the Australians, after allowing a 10-point margin to evaporate in the second half after leading 31-27 at half-time, Gaze scored two crucial three-pointers in the space of a minute to recover the lead.``When we lost the 10-point lead and the wheels started to fall off, all of a sudden we got some big shots and some big stops,'' said Gaze, who bagged 7-of-10 field shots, grabbed six rebounds and delivered four assists.

But with 44.6 seconds to play, Australian forward Mark Bradtke found himself under intense pressure at the free-throw line with his team behind by one point.

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