Lithuania own the fourth quarter to thump Tunisia 76-63 – Olympics Men Basketball Recap
The Lithuanian men basketball team narrowly avoided a huge upset days after giving the U.S men’s team a run for their money at the London Olympics.
The Lithuanians were leading in the final period of their game against the U.S team a few days ago, but eventually lost to the heroics of LeBron James. However, on Monday night, the Lithuanian side seemed rusty and needed a big final quarter to avoid a defeat at the hands of the Tunisian side.
Lithuania outscored the Tunisians 26-9 in the final period to take a 76-63 victory, as the Tunisians gave them trouble throughout the game.
Darius Songaila scored a team high 13 points, going 5 of 6 from the field as he led five Lithuanian players in double digit points.
Sarunas Jasikevicius also finished with 13 points and 5 assists. For Tunisia, Amine Rzig scored a game high 17 points and 5 rebounds, going 7 of 9 from the field. Salah Mejri was the standout player of the game, finishing with 16 points and 12 rebounds.
Tunisia were clearly the better team in the first period, outscoring Lithuania 18-7. Lithuania went 3 of 10 from the field and committed 6 turnovers in the first frame, as they looked rusty to open the game.
However, the Europeans woke up in the 2nd period and opened it with an 8-4 run to reduce the deficit to 15-22 within the first three minutes.
6 straight points then had Lithuania trailing by only 1 point, but Tunisia finally got going and scored 10 straight points to extend the lead to 32-21. Rimantas Kaukenas closed the period with three pointer for Lithuania, which reduced the deficit to 35-29 going into halftime.
The Tunisians came charged up into the 2nd half, and scored 6 straight points early in the third period to extend their lead back to 43-31 as they looked for their first victory of the tournament. A three pointer by Rzig gave the Tunisians their largest lead till that point at 14, but the Lithuanians once again closed the period with a 9-2 run to trail 50-54 at the end of three quarters.
The final quarter belonged to Lithuania as they outscored the Tunisians 26-9 and cruised to what was a comfortable victory in the end.
The Tunisians, having controlled the game for much of the first three periods, lost their rhythm in the final quarter and failed to closeout.
Lithuania opened the period with a 15-2 run as they stepped up on defense and allowed the Tunisians only one successful field goal attempt in the first six and a half minutes. From there on, the Tunisians never resisted.
Kaukenas, Renaldas Seibutis and Simas Jasaitis all finished with 10 points for Lithuania, and provided good support to Songaila and Jasikevicius. Macram Ben Romdhane was the only other Tunisian apart from Rzig and Mejri in double figure points. He finished with 12 points and 6 rebounds. Lithuania are now in 4th place in Group A behind Argentina.
Tags: