American men curlers lose to Britain and are all but swept out of Olympic competition

US men curlers all but out of contention

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The U.S. men’s Olympic curling run is all but over.

Scottish skip David Murdoch’s British team handed the foursome a 4-2 loss Sunday. That dropped the Americans to 2-5, practically assuring their elimination from semifinal contention.

Murdoch’s world champion team is 4-3 and bounced back from a tough loss to Canada a night earlier. Murdoch nailed what has become a routine draw to the button on his throw, pulling out a big win to boost his team’s playoff chances.

The Americans went ahead with a point in the second. Murdoch then scored a go-ahead deuce in the fifth before stealing one in the sixth when Jason Smith had last stone and couldn’t convert. Smith picked up a point in the eighth.

“We really played some great ends in that game. It’s too bad Jason and I struggled a little bit,” skip and third shooter John Shuster said. “What makes it so hard is we’ve been in all these games. If we’d gone out here and gotten blown away in a bunch of games it would probably feel a lot worse. We came here and battled this week.”

The United States takes on unbeaten Canada (7-0) Monday morning.

If the Americans beat Canada and China in their final two games they would still have a mathematical shot of forcing a tiebreaker.

“We’re going to give Canada all they can handle tomorrow,” Shuster said. “We’re going to be out there playing for pride.”

Said teammate John Benton, “If we go out and win that game it’s a big statement either way.”

Alternate Chris Plys returned to the lineup as coach Phill Drobnick sat Benton this time just to give him a break. It was the second lineup switch after Drobnick benched the struggling Shuster for Friday’s win over France. Both Smith and Shuster had their share of problems placing their stones Sunday.

“I was thinking about it sitting on the bench today. At this point it’s hard to go back and try to take those things back,” Benton said of reflecting on the tough results, including three straight extra-end defeats. “I think a couple weeks from now we’ll look back and find a ton of positives — coming together as a team and getting through the hardships we’ve had this week. I kind of felt if we didn’t win today that I would have this depression, that I’d be bummed. But I’m really not that bummed. I feel like we came here and represented our country well.”

Murdoch is quietly working his way right back into contention.

“That’s what we’ve done at quite a few championships after a slow start,” he said. “Hopefully we can pull off another two wins and get in the semifinals. Our fate’s in our own hands, so that’s good.”