LTU/KAZ - Lithuania close in on ninth

AUCKLAND (FIBA U19 World Championship) - Lithuania have made light work of Kazakhstan in their classification game at the North Shore Events Centre.

In the early game on a cold Auckland morning, the Lithuanians didn’t give their Asian rivals a chance to warm up, breaking out to a 33-11 quarter time lead. While the Kazaks would win the second quarter, 28-26, the damage had been done early.

In the second half, Lithuania again stepped up the pace as the high scoring shootout continued, handing out 8 assists in the period as they took a 91-60 lead into three quarter time.

The European runners up kept their fast scoring pace going in the final term to record the highest score of the championship, and win 113-79.

Kazakhstan team management have stated throughout the FIBA U19 World Championship that the tournament has been a learning experience, and they will be hoping to convert those lessons into a victory against the loser of Spain and Egypt on Saturday, when they face off for 11th spot in the tournament.

In today’s game, Alexandr Tyutyunik again led the way for his country, scoring 20 points and grabbing 6 rebounds. The strong 200cm forward is third in tournament scoring with over 19ppg. Shooters Pavel Illin (12 points) and Anton Arsenyev (11) also scored in double figures.

For Lithuania, Eimantis Bendzius (21 points, 5 rebounds) , Dovidas Redikas (19 points, 8 rebounds), Adomas Drungilis (16 points, 10 rebounds), and Vytenis Cizauskas (14 points, 4 assists, 4 steals) all enjoyed a day out.

Lithuania will now play for 9th spot at 11:15am Saturday at the North Shore Events Centre, and will be most keen to finish what has been a disappointing tournament by their own high standards with a win.


Matas Sapiega, Lithuania :

On motivation for the classification round: “Yeah, it was difficult, because we wanted to get to the quarter finals, so we are disappointed. But we finished 10th at the U16 European tournament, so we definitely want to get 9th here.

But it has been great to see Argentina, USA, we hadn’t seen these and other teams. So now we know what good players there are in the world. And tomorrow I think we will play Spain, who are a European team, so it’s going to be a big fight I think!”

FIBA