FIBA EuroBasket Day 6 Review: Lithuania rout Portugal; Turkey knock down mighty Spain (Part-2)
Lithuania 98 – Portugal 69
In the last first round meeting of Group A, hosts Lithuania rattled the lowly Portugal, handing visitors’ their fifth straight loss in as many games. Guard Martynas Pocius and reserve Sarunas Jasikevicius netted 14 points apiece
and led the line-up towards a 98-69 rout over Portugal on Monday night.
Despite of Carlos Andrade’s brilliant performance of 16 points and 5 rebounds, Portugal completely lost the momentum in the second half of the game, making an exit in the same way, they started off.
After receiving a drubbing from the mighty Spanish side in the last meeting, team Lithuania was determined to bounce back strongly before the beginning of the second round and they did it in style.
Pocius opened the scoring with a lay-up and from there, the hosts never trailed. Led by their starters, Lithuania completely took control of the game in the first quarter, ending it with a 28-16 lead.
Portugal crawled back into the game in the second quarter. They shored the gaps in the backcourt and held the Lithuanians to only 13 points in the frame, slashing their lead by half to 41-35 at the break. The second half of the
game however turned out to be an absolute defensive nightmare for Portugal as the Lithuania hammered them with a 57-point blitz, ending the night with a straightforward win.
Lithuania’s starter Simas Jasaitis said after winning the game. "It was important for us to get a good victory after yesterday's result. I think we did that and we head to Vilnius feeling good about ourselves."
Turkey 65 – Spain 57
When the Turkish team entered the Panevezys Arena on Monday night, they needed an equation that was nothing short of a miracle to advance into the second round of the FIBA EuroBasket 2011. They had to beat the as yet unbeaten Spain
and had to hope that Poland lost out to Great Britain.
Spain entered the tournament as the defending champions and title favourites and no team had till date even come close of bothering them. However, with so much at stake, the spirited Turkish side not only took down the mighty Spaniards,
but also ensured that did it comprehensively.
The determination paid off for Turkey as they managed to overcome one of the biggest hurdles left in their way to continue the action in the tournament. Off course, the absence of Pau Gasol helped a lot.
Emir Preldzic was the highlight of the night. The Turkish reserve scored a game-high 18 points; while Hidayet Turkoglu, the Orlando Magic big and Chicago Bulls’ Omer Asik also finished the game with 12 points apiece.
The turning point of the game came in the last ten minutes. Trailing by 6 points in the fourth quarter, Turkey played turned on the heat on the defense and restricted Spain to only 2 points. Turkey scored 16 points in the same
stretch and romped towards a marvellous 65-57 win.
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