Lithuania stun Team USA at the #3x3U18
Just four hours after the Lithuanian women's team surprised the US team in the FIBA 3x3 U18 World Championships pool stage, Lithuania's men pulled off an astonishing upset, defeating a US team that had finished all their games before the limit but were held to a mere 12 points in a Last 16 tournament exit (15-12) on Saturday 28 September 2013. "I ...
Just four hours after the Lithuanian women's team surprised the US team in the FIBA 3x3 U18 World Championships pool stage, Lithuania's men pulled off an astonishing upset, defeating a US team that had finished all their games before the limit but were held to a mere 12 points in a Last 16 tournament exit (15-12) on Saturday 28 September 2013.
"I think it will take months before we will realize what we did," Lithuania's Jonas Leksas confessed.
"There is a big celebration in Lithuania right now! We were very concentrated during the match. We are only schoolboys and [Cliff Alexander] is a star already. (Big man) Martynas Sajus played really well and Alexander today was not the real Alexander."
Sajus' size and the Lithuanians' aggressive defense frustrated the top scorer of the tournament, who left a lot of points on the free-throw line while the Lithuanian wings simply knocked down their shots.
Just like the USA, Germany had a perfect 7-0 record in the pool stage before falling short against Russia (18-16) despite another great performance from their playmaker Andreas Obst (27 pts overall on Saturday, a day-high).
This means there are only two unbeaten teams at this stage with Puerto Rico's suffocating defense (less than 11pts conceded per game) and Argentina's clutch players (two wins in overtime on Saturday).
The men’s quarter-finals will start at 15:30 Jakarta time with Russia v China on the main court and available on our livestream and Puerto Rico v France, Argentina v Poland and Lithuania v Spain on the other courts.
After losing against Lithuania in the pool stage, Team USA's women's team regrouped against Thailand (21-14) to stamp their ticket to the quarter-finals.
After six games, France remain the only undefeated team, without winning a single game by more than five points.
The women's quarter-finals will begin at 15:00 Jakarta time with France v USA on the main court and available on our livestream and Czech Republic v Spain, Italy v Ukraine and England v Estonia (and the leading scorer of the women's tournament, Trine Kasemagi) on the other courts.
The games attracted a lot of new spectators on Saturday and the crowd erupted as the Indonesian men's team won their first game of the tournament against Estonia (13-10).
The Honda dunk contest qualifier was another fan favourite and Sun Minghui (China) scored a perfect 30/30 after an alley-oop dunk from behind the backboard. The youngest player of the men's tournament, Philippines' Kobe Paras, however stole the show with a tribute to LeBron James' trademark training dunk, an alley-oop pass to himself between-the-legs finished reverse off the glass.
It was the end of a successful day for the Philippines in Indonesia as the 23-year-old Megan Young was crowned Miss World in Bali.