FIBA – Men’s Day 5 Group A Round-Up

BEIJING (Olympics) - FIBA Oceania champions Australia rendered the rest of the day’s engagements in Group A inconsequential pulling an upset 106-75 win over Group leaders Lithuania in the Olympic men’s basketball competition on Monday.

Defending Olympic gold medalists Argentina brought the curtains down on the men’s preliminary round with a 91-79 win over EuroBasket 2007 champions Russia. And Croatia completed the formalities of beating FIBA Asia champions Iran 91-57.

In the quarter-finals on Wednedsay, Argentina now take on Greece and Lithuania meet China. Australia take on the mighty USA and Croatia play Spain.

Argentina, if they beat Greece like they did in the 2004 Athens Olympics quarter-finals, will take on the winners of the USA-Australia game in the semi-finals.

Australia scored a few brownie points, while beating Lithuania.

For one, they were up against an opponent who had proven to be their nemesis in the Olympics.

Lithuania had stopped the Boomers from the bronze medal on two occasions -- in 1996 Atlanta and 2000 Sydney. And four years ago, in Athens, Lithuania had beaten Australia in a preliminary round game. When the two teams met in the 2006 FIBA World Championship Lithuania, again, had won.

So winning against Lithuania was as important for Australia as their ability to maintain momentum, especially after beating EuroBasket 2007 champions Russia in the previous outing.

“We played a European world power today,” Australia coach Goorjian said.

“They are like the military. They come in and they kicked our ass many times. We played a very good game of basketball and I’m very proud of it.”

Lithuania coach Ramunas Butautas said: “Congratulations to Australia. They played fantastic, played very aggressive defense and were successful on offense. We played very bad. It was not our day.”

Andrew Bogut was the leader of the Aussie charge once again. In fact, the Boomers performance in this Olympics has been directly proportional to the Milwaukee Bucks center’s form.

Bogut had nine of his game-high 23 points in the first quarter when the Boomers took a 28-14 lead. Bogut was four of five from the floor in that opening frame, which included a make on his only three-pointer.

When asked about his tactics for Team USA, in the quarter-final, Goorjian said: “There is no game plan for the USA. We have a chance to take a swing at the USA. I’m confident we are going to get out there and play ball.”

Argentina had a welcome supporter in football legend Diego Maradona in the stands for tonight’s game.

Maradona stood and applauded throughout the game as Argentina overcame a Russian fourth quarter rally to post their fourth win in the group. The only loss Argentina suffered was to Lithuania, who were also at 4-1 but finished on top thanks to the head-to-head record.

Luis Scola, the MVP of last year’s FIBA Americas championship where Argentina finished runners-up to the USA, led the South Americans’ charge with a 37-point effort.

The Houston Rockets forward was 12 of 16 from the floor and 13 of 17 in free-throws.

Argentina led 27-16 at the end of first quarter, but Russia who were playing only for pride, battled back to trail 41-39 late in the second quarter.

Twice Argentina built 16-point leads in the third quarter but the Russians clawed their way back.

In the fourth quarter, Russia brought down the deficit to just one on two occasions, Scola capped the 9-0 run to take Argentines to the victory.

Andres Nocioni notched in 19 points.

Andrei Kirilenko was the scoring leader among Russians with 23 points.

“Fortunately I hit those shots I’ve been missing all tournament and it changed the game,” Scola told a news agency. “Lucky!”

Croatia, despite playing without Marko Popovic and Zoran Planinic, raced to a 54-16 lead at the end of the first half and coasted through to beat Iran. Popovic nursed an injury and Planinic chose to rest the game.

Marin Rozic and Marko Tomas had 16 points apiece for Croatia and Nikola Prkacin scored 15.

Samad Nikkah finished with a game-high 25 points for Iran.

“Spain is one of the best teams,” Rozic said about the quarter-final game against the World champions, “but I think with our players, we can beat them like we did last year in the European Championships.”

“We came here to get some experience and we came here to learn,” said Iran coach Rajko Toroman. “Of course I’m satisfied.”

Scores

Croatia 91 (Marin Rozic 16, Marko Tomas 16, Nikola Prkacin 15, Damjan Rudez 13) bt Iran 57 (Samad Nikkah 25, Hamed Ehadadi 17). Quarterwise Scores: 19-8, 54-16, 70-39.

Australia 106 (Andrew Bogut 23, Brad Newley 16, Christ Anstey 13, Patrick Mills 13) bt Lithuania 75 (Ksistof Lavrinovic 14, Rimantas Kaukenas 12, Linas Kleiza 12). Quarterwise Scores: 28-14, 55-29, 75-51.

Argentina 91 (Luis Scola 37, Andres Nocioni 19, Manu Ginobili 12, Pablo Prigioni 11) bt Russia 79 (Andrei Kirilenko 23, JR Holden 19, Andrei Vorontsevich 10, Sergei Bykov 10). Quarterwise Scores: 27-16, 45-39, 72-64.

FIBA