FIBA U17 - Croatia perfect, Lithuania fall in OT again

KAUNAS (2012 FIBA U17 World Championship) – Croatia remained undefeated at the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship with a dominating performance over Korea while Spain out-lasted a host side Lithuania playing in their third straight overtime and Canada beat Argentina in Group B action.

Croatia used their massive size advantage in blasting Korea 124-68 as the low post trio of Tomislav Gabric (21 points, 15 rebounds and 1 assist), Karlo Zganec (18, 12, 5) and Marko Arapovic (20, 6, 3) combined for 59 points, 33 rebounds and 9 assists.

Four more players scored in double figures as Croatia improve to 3-0 atop Group A.

Korea dropped to 0-3 despite 12 points from An Young Jun and 10 from Kim Nak Hyeon. Heo Hoon was held to just 5 points after scoring 37 points in Korea’s heart-breaking overtime loss against Lithuania a day earlier.

Lithuania meanwhile played their third overtime game in three contests and dropped to 1-2 in falling 91-83 to Spain, who improved to 2-1.

Agusti Sans poured in 24 points with 5 assists for Spain and Alberto Martin collected 13 points, 4 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals.

Lithuania were led by Ernestas Serkevicius with 21 points and four other players scored in double figures. But the hosts admitted afterwards that they were tired from going into overtime the previous two evenings.

“Someone must be sending these challenges for us. Three games, three overtimes. We didn’t have enough left in the tank in the overtime. The guys left their hearts on the court,” said Lithuania coach Paulius Juodis.

“We have plenty of space to improve, as we’re young and inexperienced. Situations like this make you stronger, I’m sure a lot of these players will have successful careers in the future.”

Canada also improved to 2-1 with a hard-fought 80-76 victory over Argentina as Kevin Zabo scored 18 points while Marial Shayok added 15 points and Justin Jackson hit for 14 in the victory.

Canadian Patrick Steeves nailed a big three with 53 seconds left and then made one foul shot with 3.8 seconds left to make it 78-76. He missed the second but Shayok got the offensive rebound and put-back to decide the game.

Argentina dropped to 1-2 despite 19 points and 10 rebounds from Gabriel Deck while Alvaro Merlo added 17 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists.

After a day off on Monday, Group B play continues Spain playing Canada; Argentina squaring off with Korea; and the United States facing off against France.

FIBA