By
The Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia - Just when it seemed there could be nothing more amazing than Vince Carter's latest dunk, Canada came up with a topper.
Pulling off the biggest upset of the men's basketball tournament, Canada shocked previously undefeated Yugoslavia on the final night of preliminary round play last night to win Group B.
''I told them this would be the biggest game in the history of our country,'' coach Jay Triano said after Canada's 83-75 victory, ''and I told them that there would be a lot of Canadians up watching this game, so let's not let them down.''
Steve Nash had the game of his life for Canada, accumulating 26 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. He scored or assisted on 18 of Canada's final 21 points.
It was the type of spectacular all-around performance that may have matched Carter's latest feat - leaping over 7-foot-2 center Frederic Weis for an incredible dunk that spurred the U.S. team to a 106-94 victory against France.
''For me, that was probably the greatest play in basketball I've ever seen,'' teammate Jason Kidd said. ''Michael Jordan hasn't done that. Nobody has done that. He's the next coming of Vince Carter.''
The Americans will play Russia in the quarterfinals on Thursday. Other quarterfinal matchups are Italy-Australia, Canada-France and Yugoslavia-Lithuania.
The semifinals are Friday and the gold medal game is Sunday.
For now, yesterday will go down as the most exciting day of the tournament. The fun began with Carter making like a high-jumper and snapping the U.S. team out of its lifeless daze.
With France trying to move the ball upcourt and nine of the 10 players running the same way, Carter was headed the other way as he intercepted a pass some 30 feet from the basket and bore down on Weis with a full head of steam.
He took off from a step or two inside the foul line, spread his legs in mid-air and went right over Weis, scraping the top of the Frenchman's buzzcut.
''I knew he could jump, but I didn't know he could jump over me,'' Weis said. ''Everybody will know my face now, or my number at least. It's going to be on a poster for sure.''
It was one of the best dunks of Carter's career, arguably better than any of the dunks he performed in winning the NBA slam-dunk contest last February.
Carter said he once made one similar dunk, vaulting over 7-foot-2 Dikembe Mutombo in a game against Atlanta.
Perhaps he got his inspiration from attending the high jump the previous night at Olympic Stadium.
''I was at the track last night and telling my mom I was itching to do it, just to try it,'' said Carter, who was a high jumper in high school and once cleared 6 feet, 10 inches. ''I had the urge for some reason.''
Carter's dunk seemed to take the spark out of France, which led for most of the first half and ended up with the highest point total by a U.S. opponent in the Olympics since 1976.
The margin of victory for the U.S. team was its second-smallest since NBA players started coming to the Olympics in 1992. Lithuania's nine-point defeat last Thursday is the only closer one.
''In 10 years, you'll look in the record book and see that we continued the streak - not that we won by 9 and 12,'' Carter said. ''A win is a win.''
The Canada-Yugoslavia game followed the France-United States game, and Nash put on a different kind of show that left Canadians comparing the victory to one of the greatest moments in that country's sports history - the 1972 Summit Series hockey victory against the Soviet Union.
A loss would have left Canada in fourth place in Group B facing a quarterfinal matchup against the United States.
Instead, they won't see the Americans until the finals - if both teams get that far.
''This is a new age and a new time,'' Canada's Rowan Barrett said. ''Nothing wrong with having another sport for Canadians to follow.
''I don't think a lot of people at home expected much, and probably rightfully so. If they weren't paying attention before, they are now.''
Australia, which lost its first two games, needed a victory against Spain to get out of the preliminary round. Playing in front of a boisterous home crowd, Shane Heal scored 26 points and Andrew Gaze had 22 in a 91-80 victory.
''We are very relieved to have a chance to move on and fulfill our goals,'' said Gaze, second only to Brazil's Oscar Schmidt on the Olympic career scoring list. ''It's great that we have a chance to look ahead.''
Australia (3-2) finished in third place in Group B by virtue of its tiebreaker edge over Russia by winning the head-to-head meeting between the teams.
Italy finished second in Group A, followed by Lithuania and France.
China, Spain, New Zealand and Angola failed to advance.
