Olympics-Basketball-Spain beat Argentina to end Brazil medal hopes

By Steve Keating RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Brazilians swallowed their sporting pride and cheered for Argentina on Monday but were left with a bad taste when their bitter rivals lost 92-73 to Spain, eliminating the hosts from the Olympic men's basketball tournament. Under normal circumstances a loss by any Argentine team would send Brazilians singing and sambaing into the Rio streets, but on Monday the host nation was grudgingly in the Albicelestes' corner, needing a victory over Spain to advance to the quarter-finals. But at times it seemed Argentina, already guaranteed a top four spot in Group B, were not particularly interested in helping. The Argentines teased Brazilians by racing out to an 8-0 lead, but then sat back and watched as Spain answered with a 22-3 run to take a lead they would never surrender. Spain's victory did little to clear up the quarter-final matchup picture that now will not be decided until after the final game of group play between Lithuania and Croatia later on Monday. A Croatia win could leave the top four qualifiers all on eight points, bringing a number of tie-breakers into play before determining who draws the short straw and gets the top-seed unbeaten United States, who are on a 22-game Olympic win streak chasing a third straight gold medal. Earlier Brazil did what they needed to do by beating Nigeria 86-69. The game may have lacked the electricity of the Brazil-Argentina clash two days earlier but none of the importance with any hope of qualifying for the knockout phase hanging on victory. Brazil captain Marcelo Huertas, known as Marcelinho, admitted after the game that he could not bring himself to cheer for Argentina, who put them on the brink of elimination with a tense 111-107 double-overtime win on Saturday. "We will cheer for Spain to lose," said Huertas, settling on a reasonable compromise. Trailing by 11 at the half, Nigeria battled back to cut the Brazil advantage to 59-54 early in the final quarter, leaving the capacity crowd at Carioca Arena 1 on the edge of their seats. But the hosts calmed nerves with a 16-5 run to retake control 75-59, exiting the court to a thundering ovation. (Editing by Bill Rigby)