LTU/CHN – Lithuania crush China in tournament opener

HAMBURG (FIBA U17 World Championship) - Lithuania opened the first-ever FIBA U17 World Championship for Men by beating China 85-72 in a game that was very intense and entertaining despite the fact that it tipped off at 9:00am.

China pulled away early in the first quarter, taking a double-digit lead, but they could not prevent Lithuania from crushing the offensive glass. Led by Mantas Mockevicius (20 points), the European team came from behind to take a 40-37 halftime lead.

Displaying good ball movement, Darius Dikcius’s side carried the momentum into the second half, almost scoring at will in the paint and knocking down four of eight three-point attempts in the third quarter.

China waited until midway through the fourth quarter before using a full-court press, but it was already too late. Lithuania never looked back as they took the first win in Group A preliminary action.

Rokas Narkevicius had a nice dunk in traffic to deliver a highlight in the last minute of the game.

Quotes

Darius Dikcius, Lithuania head coach: "The first game of a tournament is always important. China has proved it is a basketball country nowadays. Now we have to carry our intensity over to the next game."

Bin Fan, China head coach: "Congratulations to Lithuania. We played a really good first quarter before they came back from behind. Then our players started to get nervous what ultimately cost us the game."

FIBA