US Men's Basketball Wins

Friday, August 24th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

BEIJING (AP) _ Juan Dixon scored 20 points and Roger Mason Jr. and Lynn Greer each added 14 to lead the U.S. men's basketball team to a 113-90 victory over Turkey at the World University Games on Friday.

Lonny Baxter added 11 points and 11 rebounds as the United States improved to 3-0.

The Americans built a nine-point lead in the first period and pushed their advantage to 20 points, 59-39, at the break.

Tolga Tekinalp led the Turks with 23 points and 10 rebounds.

Despite the U.S. team's record, coach Jerry Dunn is less than satisfied with the club's performance.

``We're not playing at a championship level right now, which is disappointing,'' Dunn said. ``If we've any chance of beating a team like China, we've got to put together 40 minutes of quality ball _ and we haven't decided to do that as a team yet.

``Offensively I think we're positive, we show flashes of greatness as a team, but that doesn't happen consistently enough for me.''

The Americans will face Germany or Brazil in the second round.

Italian fencer Valentina Vezzali continued her two-year unbeaten stretch by winning the women's individual foil gold. She beat China's Meng Jie 8-7 in the final.

Four medals were awarded in judo, with China taking both women's gold.

Yasva Despaigne earned Cuba's first gold at these games with a win in the men's 90-kilogram class, and Kwon Young-woo of South Korea took gold in the 81-kg class.

Yang Sujun won the women's 63-kg gold and teammate Qin Dongya took gold in the 70-kg division.

In women's basketball preliminaries, China shot 20-for-56 from 3-point range and beat Peru 128-37.

Canada followed its one-point victory over the U.S. women's team with a 93-31 victory over South Africa.

In other preliminary round games, Russia beat Netherlands 68-55, Lithuania defeated Nigeria 100-29; and Yugoslavia beat Portugal 62-51.