POL – Spain pass Lithuania test; Serbs advance despite loss to Turkey

LODZ (EuroBasket 2009) - Spain, Slovenia and Turkey all clinched important wins in the EuroBasket on Monday night in Poland.

The Spaniards, looking to bounce back from their narrow defeat to the Turks on the first day of Qualifying Round Group F action, won 84-70 to stay in contention for a place in the Quarter-Finals.

Los Chicos de Oro looked to be in trouble at the end of the first quarter after two free-throws by Robertas Javtokas gave Lithuania a 24-15 lead.

The Spaniards, with Ricky Rubio and Pau Gasol on the floor and playing their best game of the EuroBasket so far, increased the intensity on defense at the beginning of the second quarter and took over.

Rubio came up with a steal and shortly after passed to Rudy Fernandez, who buried a three-pointer to spark a 23-0 run.

Gasol had eight of his game-high 19 points in that decisive scoring rampage while Fernandez and Juan Carlos Navarro poured in five apiece.

Lithuania stopped the rot when Linas Kleiza made a three-pointer with 2:56 in the half to reduce Spain's advantage to 38-27.

At the break, Spain led 40-32 and Lithuania pulled to within seven early in the third quarter but got no closer.

Jorge Garbajosa scored 10 points against the Lithuanian and spoke about the team's triumph.

"It was a really important game and win for us, not only because of the result, but also because we felt comfortable on the court," he said.

"We showed more passion today than in previous games. We learned today how we should play the next games and we need to make sure that we keep our performance on today's level."

Spain can finish second or third if they win against Poland on Wednesday and Lithuania upset Serbia.

A defeat to Poland, however, would knock Spain out of the tournament.

Slovenia continued their excellent EuroBasket run under coach Jure Zdovc by thrashing the Poles 76-60.

Erazem Lorbek, one of the top players in the EuroBasket so far, had 20 points and nine rebounds for the Slovenians whose only loss so far has been an overtime defeat to Spain in Group C.

Slovenia only led 31-29 at half-time but took control in the third quarter when they outscored Muli Katzurin’s team 22-11.

"In the second half we played calm and confident basketball," Slovenia forward Goran Jagodnik said.

"We realized everything that the coach said. We stopped (Marcin) Gortat and the Polish attack."

Slovenia are in second place behind undefeated Turkey, who won an overtime thriller against Serbia, 69-64, in the final game of the night.

Ersan Ilyasova poured in 22 points and had 11 rebounds for Turkey, who overcame a woeful night at the free-throw line (18 of 31, 58%) and a one-of-16 (6%) shooting effort from the floor by Hedo Turkoglu.

Defense has been winning games for Bogdan Tanjevic's team and so it proved again as they forced their opponents to turn the ball over 18 times.

"The key was that we made so many turnovers and had a very low field goal percentage," Serbia coach Dusan Ivkovic said.

"The main problem was how to organize our offense against their zone."

While Turkoglu struggled on offense, he excelled on defense.

The new Toronto Raptors ace had a game-high four steals and almost won the game at the end of regulation when he attempted to tip in Kerem Tunceri's missed lay-up.

Referees went to the scorer's table and looked at a video replay, determining that the buzzer had sounded before the ball had left the superstar's hands.

In overtime, Turkey went in front for good after Semih Erdin was fouled by Nemanja Bjelica and made one of two attempts at the free-throw line for a 65-64 advantage.

Serbia failed to score for the entire overtime.

"This was a really tough game for us," Serbia center Kosta Peravic said.

"We were fighting for 45 minutes. We know Turkey is a good team. At the end we were unfortunate. We missed six open shots. I hope next time is going to be different."

Despite failing to win, Serbia progressed to the Quarter-Finals earlier in the evening by virtue of Poland's defeat to Slovenia.

Group E games will be played on Tuesday in Bydgoszcz.

Russia take on F.Y.R. of Macedonia, France clash with Greece and Germany go up against Croatia.

FIBA