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Summary United States defeated Spain 107-100 to win basketball gold at the London Olympics.
The United States beat an inspired Spain 107-100 in a fast-paced match to win the Olympic gold medal in mens basketball at North Greenwich Arena.With Kevin Durant leading the way with 30 points, the U.S. retained their Olympic title in a rematch of their closely-fought 2008 final in Beijing.Both teams pushed the ball upcourt in nonstop action to the roaring delight of the 20,000 fans packed in to see the gold medal game and were separated by just one point at halftime.The U.S. were still clinging to their one point lead at 83-82 going into the fourth quarter of a physical clash.Point guard Chris Paul and LeBron James, however, took control of the game at the start of the final quarter to give the United States some breathing room and the Americans built a nine-point lead at 95-86 midway through the fourth that they held on to.James scored 19 points as second-high scorer for the Americans behind Durant, while Kobe Bryant registered 17 points.Spanish centre Pau Gasol, who scored the first 13 points for Spain at the start of the third quarter to help them take a 71-70 lead, topped the scoring list for Spain with 24 points.Juan-Carlos Navarro, whose outside shooting fuelled the Spanish offense in the first half, had 21 points in the game.Croatia won gold in the mens water polo tournament, overpowering Italy 8-6 to win the countrys first Olympic title in the sport since its gained independence from Yugoslavia.The Croatians ran away with the match in the second half, with the Italians failing to threaten and struggling to find a way past the tournaments top-ranked goalkeeper in Croatias Josip Pavic.Both teams feature on the podium for the first time since 1996, when Croatia won silver and Italy took home bronze.Serbia won the bronze medal in a match against Montenegro.Lithuanias Laura Asadauskaite took gold in the womens modern pentathlon, storming to a convincing win in the combined shoot and run finale of the one-day event to bag the final medal of the Games.Britains Samantha Murray, who was in fourth place after the first three events of fencing, shooting and riding, took the silver to a deafening roar from the home crowd.The nail-biting combined finale, in which athletes shoot at five targets before running 1,000 metres, a procedure they repeat three times, is making its Olympic debut in London. The events were previously held separately.Brazils Yane Marques, who had gone into the shoot and run on level points with world number one Asadauskaite, stormed to an early lead after the first shoot but fell behind in the running laps around Greenwich Park, eventually taking bronze.
