Kleiza lifts Lithuania to top group spot
September 1, 2010
IZMIR, Turkey (AP)—Jonas Maciulis had 19 points and Linas Kleiza(notes) added 15points as Lithuania beat France 69-55 Wednesday to clinch top spot in Group D atthe basketball world championship.
“It’s a big step,” Lithuanian coach Kestutis Kemzura said. “But all theinteresting things are just starting.”
Lithuania (4-0) handed France (3-1) its first defeat and, after playingLebanon (1-3) on Thursday, will face the fourth seed of Group C – likely Greece,Russia, China or Puerto Rico – in Istanbul on Tuesday.
Nicholas Batum scored nine points in the first quarter as France jumped outto a 24-11 lead with an 11-0 run.
“Probably we played our best quarter since the beginning of thetournament,” French coach Vincent Collet said.
Kemzura added: “At the beginning we didn’t execute well, we were in ahurry.”
But Lithuania closed it to 30-24 at half, and continued to storm back asFrance went cold from the field in the third quarter, missing eight of 13 fieldgoal attempts and three of four free throw attempts.
Down 30-24 at halftime, Lithuania took a 35-32 lead three minutes into thethird on Martens Pocius’ three-pointer. It built its lead as France missed eightof 13 field goal attempts and three of four free-throw attempts in the quarter.
Kleiza took a half-court pass on a fast break to dunk with 4:42 left in thequarter, giving Lithuania a 44-35 lead and sending a group of fans wearingyellow wigs and green smiley-face T-shirts to their feet.
At times, it seemed as if all the basketball-crazed Baltic country’sfaithful made it to Halkapinar Arena for this one. They hung at least 20 flagsfrom the rafters, and brought out about 10 more to wave during the breaks.Behind one basket, a section of the fans periodically unfurled a giantrectangular swathe of green, yellow and red-colored cloth that blocked the sightof at least 80 people.
“They help a lot,” Kemzura said. “They give energy to our players. We’rea small nation, just three million. In important moments, when we get together,it looks like we’re the biggest country.”
Back-to-back three-pointers by Tomas Delininkaitis and Renaldas Seibutis(notes)gave Lithuania a 58-41 lead with 7:30 left in the game, and France never gotwithin 10 after that.
“We played for one quarter and a half, and just deserved to lose becausethey played better for the rest of the game,” French forward Boris Diaw(notes) said.
Collet added: “We lost the rhythm and unfortunately we could not get itback.”
Nicolas Batum(notes) led France with 13 points, and Mickael Gelabale(notes) added 10points.
France plays New Zealand (2-2) Thursday.
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