Argentina will be up next

ATHENS -- Another United States-Argentina matchup is on tap. The Argentines, who ended the US's 58-game winning streak with NBA-stocked teams, edged Greece, 69-64, last night to move into the semifinals.

It will be the fourth meeting between the countries in the last two years. Argentina upended the Yanks, 87-80, Sept. 4, 2002, the first-ever loss for a USA Basketball team with NBA players. The teams then met twice last summer in San Juan during the Olympic qualifying tournament. In the first game, the US claimed a 94-86 victory. The second meeting, in the gold medal game, was a US wipeout, 106-73. But both teams had qualified for Athens by that time.

The US is 3-0 against Argentina in Olympic play, the last victory coming in 1996 in Atlanta.

Argentina, which has not finished higher than ninth in the Olympics since 1952, survived a horrible second quarter (7 points) and rallied from an 11-point deficit in the third. Fabricio Oberto and Manu Ginobili each had 13 points for Argentina, but the unsung hero was seldom-used reserve Walter Herrmann, who came in for an ineffective Andres Nocioni and changed the tenor of the game. Herrmann finished with 8 points and a team-best six rebounds, and was instrumental in getting the Argentines back into the game. Also coming up big for Argentina was Pepe Sanchez, who had 12 points.

The Argentines shot 43 percent and were pounded on the boards by the bigger, more physical Greeks. "We will have to improve our level of play against the United States," Oberto said. "That team [the US] has improved every game. They're dealing with a different game and they're learning every game. We can't do what we did [last night] against them."

Greece had its chances to advance. But the hosts managed only 11 points in the fourth quarter to disappoint a boisterous, partisan crowd of 14,500.