IZMIR (FIBA World Championship) - Lithuania has secured a controversial and dramatic 70-68 win over Canada. Jermaine Anderson had a chance to win the game for Canada on the final buzzer but his three pointer lipped off the rim.
 
Canada appeared to have the game secured midway through the third quarter when they led by 17, but the physicality of Lithuania at both ends of the court literally locked the Canadians down and set up the dramatic run that brought the 2000 travelling Lithuanian fans to fever pitch.
 
The hero for Lithuania was Tomas Delininkaitis who spearheaded the half court offence and added 11 points of his own. Linas Kleiza (18 points, 10 rebounds) and Martynas Pocius were also strong contributors.

Anderson has 15 points, 5 assists and 4 steals in an excellent display, supported by Joel Anthony (12 points, 5 rebounds) and Denham Brown (11 points).
 
Canada led by 10 at half time, securing their break with a fast start where they led 7-0 after less than 90 seconds.

The Canadians unpredictable trapping defence and transition offence was giving the structured Lithuanians trouble, shooters Andy Rautins and Brown with five points each in a 20-12 quarter time lead.
 
As with day one, Lithuania upped the physicality in the second quarter and created a half court affair. Behind Kleiza’s seven points for the quarter they closed to 29-32 with 3:31 to play in the half. But three consecutive field goals from Anthony, including a strong tip in, triggered an 11-4 Canada run to finish the quarter.
 
When Canada peeled off 13-6 in the first five minutes of the third term behind six points from Anderson the game was almost over at 56-39, but Delininkaitis sparked the Lithuanian surge that brought their fans to life, and Kleiza finished it, nailing a buzzer beating three to have Lithuania within two, 57-55.
 
While Canada hung tough in the final quarter, Lithuania’s half court execution was superior, and they managed to hold on in a thriller.

After the heart pounding win Lithuania's Mantas Kalnietis visited with FIBATV.Com.
 

Quotes

Leo Rautins (coach): A lot of credit to Lithuania, they played a really good game. They’re a real difficult opponent for us to play against. We tried a few different things, and I thought we did enough to win the game, but unfortunately in the end we didn’t get it done. With our team, every game at this level hopefully makes us better.
 
I haven’t seen Jermaine (Anderson) miss too many shots where he had the chance to win the game for us. He had a great game today.
 
Kestutis Kemzura (coach): We are just approaching each game. Results in this championship, a lot of people call surprises but they are not. The basketball level around the world is getting very, very close.
 
Canada played well, they played great. It took us some time to figure out the ways how to win. We got some good open looks and we missed, and we missed foul shots. Rebounding again – finally our guys got it, if you don’t get the ball you don’t win, and I think we did a better job of defensive transition in the second half of the game.

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Paulo Kennedy

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ANKARA (2010 FIBA World Championship) – Turkey saw off Russia 65-56 in front of more than 10,000 fans at Ankara Arena to stay undefeated in Group C of the 2010 FIBA World Championship.

Both teams had the hot hand early as the game looked more like a three-point shootout. The score was tied at nine with all points coming from behind the arc.

Both teams eventually cooled off, particularly David Blatt’s men who made only three of 16 attempts from two-point range in the first half and didn’t find their range until late in the game with Turkey holding a double-digit lead.

Andrey Vorontsevich hit a tough shot in the lane to put Russia up 14-11 but the hosts got in front by accounting for the last five of the first quarter.

Ender Arslan connected twice from downtown as Turkey extended their advantage to 25-16.

Sinan Guler buried a three-pointer from the corner as Bogdan Tanjevic’s men took a 33-22 lead at the break.

The Russians went on a 6-0 spurt – capped off by Sasha Kaun’s thunderous dunk – to get within 33-28 early in the third quarter.

The Turks though pulled away once more with Omer Asik and Hidayet Turkoglu knocking down timely baskets.

Semih Erden then flipped up a shot with his back to the basket and completed a three-point play as the hosts went into the final frame with a 48-37 advantage.

Russia’s struggles were best illustrated by Sergey Monya blowing a straightforward looking dunk and Sergey Bykov missing a lay-up from point blank range.

Monya made up for his miss by hitting a three-pointer and Vitaliy Fridzon added one of his own to cut the deficit to 57-49, before Turkoglu re-established a double-digit lead for his team to put the game beyond reach.

Quotes:

Bogdan Tanjevic (Turkey head coach): “This game was similar to the one against the Ivory Coast. We played this game like a surgeon: operating slowly and carefully. I think we spread our energy well throughout the game and got a good result.”

Hedo Turkoglu (Turkey forward): “Our target was set from the beginning: take it game game by game. We worked hard. Coach said that every ball, every score and every second is important. We played hard until the last second. I know I made a couple of stupid mistakes all around. It was a good game for us and I am happy to win. Tomorrow we are going to relax but also keep on training. The day after (Tuesday) we will be competing in order to top the group. All in all, I am happy with tonight’s game.”

David Blatt (Russia head coach): “This was a hard-fought game and I think from our perspective we had a bad second quarter and could not come back. My guys played hard and played good defense but it’s hard against the Turkish team and their crowd. We faced a really strong Turkish team and we made bad decisions at the key points of the game.”

Sasha Kaun (Russia centre): “We played hard, good and smart but our second quarter was bad and it was hard to come back from that. We put pressure on ourselves, we tried to come back but couldn’t do it. We hope to come back strong in the next game.”


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