ESP – Russia, Spain win to reach gold medal game at EuroBasket

MADRID (EuroBasket 2007) - Russia upset Lithuania, 86-74, on Saturday night to reach the gold-medal game against EuroBasket hosts Spain and secure qualification for next year's Olympics.

Andrei Kirilenko turned in his best performance of the tournament, collecting 29 points, eight rebounds, three blocks and three steals.

Lithuania must now beat Greece - losers to Spain in the first semifinal - in the bronze-medal game to secure their automatic qualifying place for the Beijing Games.

The Russians, trying to reach their first EuroBasket title game since 1993, stormed out to a 19-point lead in the second quarter but watched Lithuania close the gap to 40-33 by halftime.

With the inspirational Ramunas Siskauskas scoring many of his 30 points late in the second half, the Lithuanians tied the game at 52-52 with 4:20 remaining in the third quarter and kept alive hopes they would remain unbeaten in the EuroBasket.

But Kirilenko, who spent much of the second quarter on the bench with three fouls, replied with a 3-pointer and a three-point play and JR Holden followed with a long jump shot just inside the arc for a 60-52 advantage.

They would go up by 11, only for Siskauskas to cut the deficit to seven points on a pair of free throws and a layup.

Siskauskas then trimmed the deficit to 65-61 with a 3-pointer at the start of the final quarter.

That was as close as Lithuania would get.

Kirilenko scored seven straight points, which included a three-point play, for a 72-61 advantage en route to the victory.

"We're in the Olympic Games, and that was the goal," Kirilenko said to FIBA. "Right now, we’re in the final. We tried hard, and I think we did a really great job as a team.”

As for Lithuania clawing their way back to tie the game, Kirilenko said: “It’s a very tough, aggressive game. They started pressing us full court and we made some silly mistakes, but then we started beating the press.

“Spain are hosts, the crowd will be against us, but we can play great. We need to pick it up ourselves and play the same kind of defense as we did tonight (Saturday).”

The defeat is a bitter one for Lithuania, a team that most experts believed would reach the final after winning of its group and qualifying games, and its quarterfinal against Croatia.

"There is little to say," said Siskauskas, who will play with several of the Russian players next season at CSKA Moscow.

Lithuania coach Ramunas Butautas had only kind words for Blatt and Russia.

“Respect for a big, great team,” he said.

“Mr Blatt did a great job. They played very nice, European basketball. The start of the game was terrible for us. Russia played faster and smarter.

“Our players played very slowly. In the middle of the game, we had a chance and our players played tougher and stronger on defense, but it was not enough to win.

“Of course we only had 20 hours after the tough game against Croatia, but Russia is a great team and they won.”

Earlier Saturday, Spain were pushed to the limit but the world champions held on for an 82-77 victory over Greece to reach the gold medal game.

In a rematch of last year's gold-medal contest at the FIBA World Championship in Japan, the Spanish trailed by two points midway through the final quarter.

But Toronto Raptors star Jose Calderon buried a 3-pointer from the left corner to regain the lead.

And new Memphis Grizzlies signing Juan Carlos Navarro followed with an off-balance layup for a 70-67 lead with 3:31 remaining.

Greece stayed close, but Spain led for the remainder of the game.

Jorge Garbajosa - the Raptors power forward who almost missed the EuroBasket after suffering a serious injury to his ankle and fibula at the end of March - had six points, five rebounds and two assists.

"It was a very tough, physical game," Garbajosa said to FIBA. "We knew it was going to be like this because it was against a great rival. Greece are defending European champions, and whoever thought it was going to be easy, they were mistaken."

His two biggest points came with 18 seconds remaining.

Nikos Zisis had just made a 3-pointer to close the gap to 78-76, and Garbajosa was fouled on the in-bounds play. He walked to the stripe and made both free throws for an 80-76 lead.

Greece hurried the ball up the floor, and Theo Papaloukas drove into the lane but lost control of the ball and it went out of bounds for a turnover.

Navarro added two more free throws to give him 23 points for Spain.

Tempers flared at the end of the third quarter when Navarro drove into the lane and attempted a layup, only to be blocked by Dimitris Diamantidis.

The two players exchanged angry words, Navarro pushed Diamantidis and the Greek guard then bumped Navarro with his chest before the two were separated.

With 8:57 remaining in the game, Calderon and Konstantinos Tsartsaris also became involved in an altercation.

Calderon was standing at the top of the key in front of Spain's bench after Navarro had drilled a 3-pointer. As Tsartsaris ran up the floor, he leaned into Calderon and the guard fell to the court, looking in obvious pain.

Both team's players ran to the spot, Tsartaris pushed away Garbajosa and the referee called an unsportsmanlike foul on the Greek. Garbajosa made both free throws to lead 64-60.

"They (Greece) came here after yesterday's win with a lot of confidence and they've made us suffer," Garbajosa said. "But through that suffering, we've shown a lot of character."

Dirk Nowitzki and Germany struggled but finally came around late in the second half to beat Slovenia, 69-65, on Saturday to secure a place in next year's pre-Olympic qualifying tournament.

Nowitzki scored a game-high 28 points on 9-of-25 shooting from the field, including 3-of-11 from the arc, and also pulled down 10 rebounds.

The loss for Slovenia means they must now beat France on Sunday in the battle for seventh place, with the victors of that game also taking a place in the pre-Olympic tournament.

Croatia bounced back from their narrow quarter-final defeat to Lithuania by beating France 86-69 to clinch a place in next year's pre-Olympic qualifying tournament.

Marko Popovic hit back-to-back 3-pointers midway through the third quarter after an 11-0 run by France had pulled Les Bleus to within 47-42.

"We all had a role in the team and it was difficult because of yesterday's painful defeat" Popovic said. "But unlike yesterday, when we ran out of energy mentally and physically in the last minutes of the game, today we held on.

"This is a big deal for us because we came here, wanting to clinch a place in the pre-Olympic qualifying tournament and we've done it."

Jeff Taylor and Cindy Garcia-Bennett
FIBA