Manila: Lithuania won Group D in FIBA World Cup with a 91-71 triumph over Montenegro here, joining Germany, the Dominican Republic and Canada to move into the round of 16 with perfect records.
Both Lithuania and Montenegro had secured the spots in round of 16 by beating Egypt and Mexico respectively before Tuesday’s games, so the showdown was a matter for the top place, reports Xinhua.
Lithuania had won six of their last seven games in the preliminary round of the FIBA World Cup, with five of those wins ending with margins of 23 or more points while Lithuania had scored more than 90 points in four of their last five games in the preliminary round of the World Cup.
Despite Montenegro’s 27-26 lead in the first quarter, Lithuania’s superior three pointer percentage and rebounding allowed them to run away with 66-50 after three quarters and kept the opposite at bay.
The rebounding ability made the difference, as Lithuania led 44-30 in rebound, Nikola Vucevic was still the pillar for Montenegro as the center got a game-high of 19 points, while Lithuania had four players scoring in double digits with Rokas Jokubaitis also providing 19.
“First of all, congratulations to the players, they did a great job today and after three quarters, we controlled the game, it is related to our defense. It is an important victory, we’re very happy to win against such a team,” said Lithuania’s coach Kazys Maksvytis.
In another Group D fixture, Ehab Amin’s 22 points, 10 assists and six rebounds surged Egypt to beat Mexico 100-72, picking up its first World Cup win since 1994. As of Tuesday, all five African teams have one win.
Despite being guaranteed to finish as the top finisher of Group E, Germany refused to become complacent, as evidenced by the way it took control of the Finland game in the middle quarters before cruising towards its third win, staying undefeated while keeping Susijengi winless.
Dennis Schroder and Isaac Bonga delivered 15 points apiece for Die Mannschaft, while Johannes Thiemann also supplied 13 points for a game-high efficiency of 19.
“We expected to advance, our thing was playing one game at a time. Obviously it’s nice to go into the next phase with 3-0, but we’re just in the beginning of what we want to do. The peak of the mountain is here, we’re halfway up. We have higher expectations,” said Germany head coach Gordie Herbert.
Also in Group E, Japan failed to extend its momentum against Finland as it fell to Australia 109-89, dropping into the 17-32 classification, while the Boomers finished the Group behind Germany.
After back-to-back defeats, France eventually registered its first win in Group H with a hard-fought 85-79 victory over Lebanon. A 17-point performance made Evan Fournier become the all-time leading scorer at the FIBA Basketball World Cup for Les Bleus.
In a blockbuster for Group H, Canada sank Latvia 101-75, securing the top place and leaving the European side to the second.
The Dominican Republic became the first team from Group A to advance to the second round as it saw off Angola 75-67.
The Caribbean team’s win, coupled with Italy’s 90-83 victory over the Philippines, allowed the Azzurri to eliminate Angola to cap off the preliminary round as runner-up, while the co-host has to move into the 17-32 classification round with a 0-3 group finish.
Ten teams have booked their berths in round of 16 after five matchdays, and another 6 will be decided on Wednesday.
–IANS
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