KLAIPEDA (Lithuania) - Three straight losses and on the brink of an early exit in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 European Qualifiers now seems like a distant memory for Czech Republic as they sailed through to the Second Round.

They entered the final window still in a precarious position as Bulgaria held the head-to-head record, but Czech Republic backed up a win at home to Bosnia and Herzegovina with an impressive 83-72 triumph on the road against Lithuania - who had been unbeaten at 5-0.

Turning point: The teams were level at 9-9 after the opening six and a half minutes, and then Czech Republic flicked a switch with a 14-3 run and were soon doubling up their opponents at 34-17 in the second quarter. Lithuania rallied to close within a single point, but another dominant spell from the visitors including a 10-0 burst to make it a 20-point game and that was that.

Game heroes: Tomas Satoranksy top-scored with a game-high 21 points along with 4 assists in the win; stepping up in the window as would have been expected upon his return to the national team. There was also a vital scoring contribution from Tomas Kyzlink with 18 points on 8-of-10 shooting off the bench.

Stats don't lie: The Czechs gave up 25 points after turnovers, but when they weren't gifting possession back to Lithuania, there were dominating inside more times than not. They finished with a shooting percentage of 60 inside the arc with 44 points in total coming in the paint.

Bottom line: Czech Republic all of a sudden look in a fairly strong position heading into the Second Round as they take three vital wins through to a group that will contain France, Hungary and Montenegro. As for Lithuania, they couldn't quite pull off the perfect First Round, but at 5-1 will be heavily favored to make it to the World Cup in 2023.

What they said: 

FIBA