İZMİR (2010 FIBAWorld Championship) - A withering 33-12 run over 11:37 minutes has split open the previously impenetrable French defence, and delivered a 69-55 win and first place in Group D for Lithuania and their army of green fans.
 
The run bridged half time, with Linas Kleiza scoring 10 points in the third term and Martynas Pocius six as the men in green shoes rolled to an insurmountable 52-41 three quarter time lead. When Tomas Delininkaitis and Renaldus Seibutis nailed triples to open the final period the contest was over.
 
Jonas Maciulus was the star of the night at both ends, finishing with 19 points, while Kleiza (15 points), Pocius and Mantas Kalneitis were also relentless in their attack.  After the game Kalneiitis visited with FIBATV.Com.
 
For France, only Nicolas Batum (13 points) had any real impact, and most of that was early in the game. France were outscored 58-31 over the last three quarters.
 
Early on, Batum picked up where he left off against Canada, scoring nine first quarter points as a French three point barrage – capped by Batum’s buzzer beater - set up a 24-11 lead at the first break.
 
The second quarter slowed to a walk, the French defence forcing six turnovers, but Les Bleus handing it back on five occasions for the period. The quarter time lead remained intact until 1:39 before halftime, when triples from Maciulis and Siebutis, followed by another basket from Maciulis brought Lithuania with six points at the long break.
 
From there it was all Lithuania as they continued their surprise unbeaten run through the tournament.


Quotes:

Mantas Kalnieties (player, Lithuania): That was a crazy game. We are in first place in group but if you consider whole championship, it is nothing.

Kestutis Kemzura (coach, Lithuania): Yesterday was kind of an interesting game, emotional game and I was afraid for tonight, this emotion will effect our game today. France is a gifted team. They missed lot of their stars but they fought well. We experienced some difficulties in the first quarter but we came back into the game and in the second quarter we started to really pressure them. I am happy for the result, it is a big step but things have just started. Lithuania is a small country but if we look our team’s quality it is getting better and better.

Boris Diaw (player, France): At the beginning of the game we were pretty good. But somehow our concentration was disturbed later. We just deserved to lose because they played better.

Vincent Collet: (coach, France): I think Lithuania fought well. We did our best from the start point of this tournament. We just lost our tempo tonight. We could not maintain our lead and stop Lithuania. After the first quarter they adapted to the game and defended very well.

 
FIBA

Paulo Kennedy

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