Argentina march towards quarterfinals by routing Lithuania 92-82: FIBA U17 World Championship
Argentina’s centre Gabriel Deck recorded 26 points and 9 boards in the group B’s final match against Lithuania, and became the impetus behind a 92-82 victory.
Lithuania made a strong come back in the 2nd half but the 10 point first half deficit haunted them throughout the game and finally became the reason behind their ejection from FIBA U17
World Championship.
This was Argentina’s 3rd victory of the tournament and with Deck, shooting guard Rodrigo Haag also added 20 points and had 5 rebounds.
On the other hand Lithuania went home after collecting their 4th loss, even though they had 3 players scoring in double figures. Edvinas Seskus barely missed his double-double. He netted
a team high 23 points to go with 9 boards while guard Ernestas Serkevicius poured in 18 and Gediminas Zalalis chipped in with 11 points.
With 5 minutes and 21 seconds remaining in the opening frame the scores were tied at 12 each. Merlo netted a 3-pointer that resulted into a 12-4 run for Argentina. With this run they capped off the opening frame
at 24-16 lead.
Argentina quickly converted it into a 35-20 advantage early in the 2nd period but Lithuania trimmed that down to 35-28 after reeling an 8-nothing burst. The game remained close afterwards
but Argentina managed to redeem their double-digit, 42-32 lead by the end of 1st half.
The 10 points lead cushioned Argentina in the third, as with 06:45 in hand they were on the top with a 49-38 lead. Lithuania tried to reduce the gap and used a 9-4 spurt to narrow down the gap to 53-47, Argentina
rebutted with an 11-5 burst and concluded the segment, as the game entered into its last 12 minutes Argentina were enjoying a double-digit 64-52 advantage.
Lithuania reduced the deficit to 72-66, using a 14-8 run early in the decisive frame. They kept on attacking the rim and with 3:08 on the clock Argentina were having a slender 78-76 lead.
Argentina, however shot the lights out after rebutting with an 11-4 burst, this not only distorted Lithuania’s momentum but also provided Argentina with a 9 points, 89-80 advantage.
The baffled Lithuanians could only add two more points before Argentina’s Haag hit 3 in a row from charity stripe and allowed his team to bag the game. Final score 92-82.
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