LTU/ESP – Lithuania annihilate Spain in rematch of European heavyweights

VILNIUS (EuroBasket 2009) - Lithuania destroyed world champions Spain 94-72 in the Siemens arena on Thursday in the last EuroBasket warm-up game for both sides.

Thumped by Spain 100-74 in Seville on August 21, Ramunas Butautas' men struck back with a vengeance in front of their raucous fans in Vilnius with both Linas Kleiza and Tomas Delininkaitis scoring 19 points.

Delininkaitis drilled four of six shots from long range, and Lithuania nailed 12 of 25 overall.

"The team would like to give a sincere thanks to the audience who supported us so well," Butautas said.

"It was very important because it helped us get a feel for the game and to clinch the victory."

Butautas still expressed concern about turnovers, something that has plagued his team all summer.

"The game was quite successful for us, but again had 18 turnovers," he said.

Nevertheless, the Lithuania defensive pressure led to many of Spain’s 20 turnovers.

Spain coach Sergio Scariolo, whose men lost for the first time all summer, is hoping that his team will play better when Pau Gasol and Rudy Fernandez return to the squad from injury.

The defeat was certainly a wakeup call for the Spanish.

"I want to congratulate coach Ramunas Butautas of Lithuania, the Vilnius team and thank the audience, which has created a fantastic atmosphere,” he said.

"Lithuania gave 100% and deserved the victory. They played with more intensity and harder.

"In Seville, we fared better and it was worse for them. Here, it was the opposite.

"I hope that we learn as the Lithuanians learned in Seville."

Marc Gasol had 15 points for Spain, who are in Group C at the EuroBasket and will face Serbia on Monday in Warsaw before taking on Great Britain and Slovenia.

Lithuania are in Group D and will begin their campaign on Monday against Turkey in Wroclaw before facing tournament hosts Poland and Bulgaria.

Six spots for the 2010 FIBA World Championship are up for grabs at the EuroBasket.

FIBA