KAUNAS (EuroBasket 2011) - Lithuania won't reach the podium at the EuroBasket but they at least kept their hopes of reaching the London Games alive by beating edging Slovenia in an 80-77 on Friday.
The victory has assured the Baltic side of a top-six spot, which was needed to earn a trip to next year's FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
Three places for London will be up for grabs at that qualifiers.
Lithuania point guard Mantas Kalnietis, who is hoping to play at his first Olympics next summer, hit a go-ahead three-pointer with 19 seconds remaining.
Rimantas Kaukenas stepped in front of a Goran Dragic pass to Mirza Begic, and the steal triggered a fast-break which Kalnietis made the most of by hitting a three-ball from the left wing for a 79-77 advantage.
After a timeout, Slovenia playmaker Jaka Lakovic penetrated into the lane but missed a runner with six seconds to play.
Slovenia got one more chance after Kalnietis split two free-throws for an 80-77 lead.
With three seconds still remaining, Slovenia coach Bozidar Maljkovic drew up a play for his team to launch a three-pointer.
The inbounds pass went to Dragic in the right corner but his long-range attempt hit the back side of the backboard.
Lithuania held on for a three-point win.
FIBA ASIA – Near misses for 2009 medallists as ch'ship tips off
The victory has assured the Baltic side of a top-six spot, which was needed to earn a trip to next year's FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
Three places for London will be up for grabs at that qualifiers.
Lithuania point guard Mantas Kalnietis, who is hoping to play at his first Olympics next summer, hit a go-ahead three-pointer with 19 seconds remaining.
Rimantas Kaukenas stepped in front of a Goran Dragic pass to Mirza Begic, and the steal triggered a fast-break which Kalnietis made the most of by hitting a three-ball from the left wing for a 79-77 advantage.
After a timeout, Slovenia playmaker Jaka Lakovic penetrated into the lane but missed a runner with six seconds to play.
Slovenia got one more chance after Kalnietis split two free-throws for an 80-77 lead.
With three seconds still remaining, Slovenia coach Bozidar Maljkovic drew up a play for his team to launch a three-pointer.
The inbounds pass went to Dragic in the right corner but his long-range attempt hit the back side of the backboard.
Lithuania held on for a three-point win.
WUHAN (FIBA Asia Championship) – Two of the favourites received mighty scares on the opening day of the FIBA Asia Championship in Wuhan, China, while the hosts and Korea made strong starts to their attempts to qualify for the London Olympics.
Syria return; Jordan hold on
The tournament started with an entertaining clash between local rivals Syria and Jordan. While 2009 bronze medallists Jordan were expected to win comfortably, a 24-13 second quarter gave Syria a five-point halftime lead.
Syria, who are returning after a four-year absence from the tournament, still led 44-38 with 3:56 remaining in the third quarter before Jordan clamped down on defense and unleashed an 18-2 run, capped by Rasheim Wright’s pull-up jump shot on the third quarter buzzer.
The dominant presence of 2.17m centre Abdulwahab Al Hamowi (eight points and four blocks) kept Syria in the game in the final term, but ultimately the class of Wright (17 points), Sam Daghles (15 points and five assists) and Jordan won out, securing a 71-58 victory.
The impressive Wael Jlilati led Syria with 13 points and four rebounds.
Defending champs breathe again
Iran also received a mighty scare in the second game, as Chinese Taipei reeled off an 11-1 run to start the third quarter to take a 10-point lead. Only the brilliance of Samad Bahrami, returning to the national team after a year out with injury, saved the reigning champions.
Samad scored all of his 18 points in the second half, including 10 in a 12-1 run that regained the lead for Iran at three quarter time. Taipei challenged again but 10 unanswered points to finish the game secured a 49-37 win for the tournament favourites.
The game gave Iran coach Veslin Matic a mighty scare.
“I was really scared,” he said, before revealing his challenge to the group after they fell behind.
“I said to them do you have pain, do you want to ice it or do you want to go out and play, go out there and fight!”
Korea, China win in style
China encountered some intense resistance from Bahrain in the final game of the night, leading by just five after the opening quarter. As the second period wore on, the hosts’ size, skill and athleticism showed through as they blew out the game and put on an impressive array of dunks for the boisterous home crowd.
Liu Wei, Sun Yue, Yi Jianlian and Zhu Fangyu all scored in double digits as China ran up the first three-figure score of the tournament, winning 101-49.
As expected, Korea thrashed Malaysia 89-42, Cho Sungmin the standout with 16 points.
Other games
Tournament darkhorse Japan weathered a first-half challenge from Indonesia to record a comfortable 81-59 victory. Indonesia took the lead midway through the second quarter but Japan, behind the play of Joji Takeuchi (11 points, 8 rebounds), Kosuke Takeuchi (10 points, 12 rebounds) and Takuya Kawamura (10 points, 4 assists) proved too good in the long run.
In the other game at the Wuhan Sports Centre, Philippines overcame a fast starting United Arab Emirates team to record a comfortable 92-52 win.
Hongshan
At the other venue in Hongshan, Lebanon gave up a 15-point third quarter lead and fell seven points behind in the final term before snatching victory 71-68 over India in the final seconds. India’s Hareesh Koroth was the star, scoring 13 of his 20 points in the second half fight back including three long range bombs.
Jean Abdel El Nour was Lebanon’s saviour with 24 points, including eight in the final quarter. In the other game, Uzbekistan defeated Qatar.
IRI/TPE – Samad happy to be back, carries Iran to victory
Syria return; Jordan hold on
The tournament started with an entertaining clash between local rivals Syria and Jordan. While 2009 bronze medallists Jordan were expected to win comfortably, a 24-13 second quarter gave Syria a five-point halftime lead.
Syria, who are returning after a four-year absence from the tournament, still led 44-38 with 3:56 remaining in the third quarter before Jordan clamped down on defense and unleashed an 18-2 run, capped by Rasheim Wright’s pull-up jump shot on the third quarter buzzer.
The dominant presence of 2.17m centre Abdulwahab Al Hamowi (eight points and four blocks) kept Syria in the game in the final term, but ultimately the class of Wright (17 points), Sam Daghles (15 points and five assists) and Jordan won out, securing a 71-58 victory.
The impressive Wael Jlilati led Syria with 13 points and four rebounds.
Defending champs breathe again
Iran also received a mighty scare in the second game, as Chinese Taipei reeled off an 11-1 run to start the third quarter to take a 10-point lead. Only the brilliance of Samad Bahrami, returning to the national team after a year out with injury, saved the reigning champions.
Samad scored all of his 18 points in the second half, including 10 in a 12-1 run that regained the lead for Iran at three quarter time. Taipei challenged again but 10 unanswered points to finish the game secured a 49-37 win for the tournament favourites.
The game gave Iran coach Veslin Matic a mighty scare.
“I was really scared,” he said, before revealing his challenge to the group after they fell behind.
“I said to them do you have pain, do you want to ice it or do you want to go out and play, go out there and fight!”
Korea, China win in style
China encountered some intense resistance from Bahrain in the final game of the night, leading by just five after the opening quarter. As the second period wore on, the hosts’ size, skill and athleticism showed through as they blew out the game and put on an impressive array of dunks for the boisterous home crowd.
Liu Wei, Sun Yue, Yi Jianlian and Zhu Fangyu all scored in double digits as China ran up the first three-figure score of the tournament, winning 101-49.
As expected, Korea thrashed Malaysia 89-42, Cho Sungmin the standout with 16 points.
Other games
Tournament darkhorse Japan weathered a first-half challenge from Indonesia to record a comfortable 81-59 victory. Indonesia took the lead midway through the second quarter but Japan, behind the play of Joji Takeuchi (11 points, 8 rebounds), Kosuke Takeuchi (10 points, 12 rebounds) and Takuya Kawamura (10 points, 4 assists) proved too good in the long run.
In the other game at the Wuhan Sports Centre, Philippines overcame a fast starting United Arab Emirates team to record a comfortable 92-52 win.
Hongshan
At the other venue in Hongshan, Lebanon gave up a 15-point third quarter lead and fell seven points behind in the final term before snatching victory 71-68 over India in the final seconds. India’s Hareesh Koroth was the star, scoring 13 of his 20 points in the second half fight back including three long range bombs.
Jean Abdel El Nour was Lebanon’s saviour with 24 points, including eight in the final quarter. In the other game, Uzbekistan defeated Qatar.
IRI/TPE – Samad happy to be back, carries Iran to victory
WUHAN (FIBA Asia Championship) – It had been a long time since Samad Bahrami stepped on court for Iran, but with his team in an hour of need in their opening game of the FIBA Asia Championship, he was happy to wind back the clock.
“Every time I play, I play 150%. I hate losing, so I do everything to avoid that,” Samad said after scoring 18 points to drag Iran back from a 10-point deficit midway through the third quarter to secure a dogged 49-37 victory over Chinese Taipei.
Samad scored all of his points in the second half, including 10 of Iran’s 12 as they recovered from their 30-20 deficit to lead 32-31 at three quarter time against a Taipei team that was riding the support of a vocal crowd.
“Every time we play against Chinese Taipei it is a tough game. We are a big team and it is very tough for us to play fast, and every time we play against the teams from East Asia it is like this,” said the 28-year-old who averaged 17.2 ppg at the Beijing Olympics.
Samad was injured for the entire international season in 2010, missing the FIBA World Championship. He believes this was an extra spur for the FIBA Asia Championship opener.
“Definitely. I didn’t play any official games for Iran last year, and when I was watching the world championship games on TV it was hard, and now I want to make sure we don’t lose any more official games,” he said.
Samad shot 8/13 for the game in 21 minutes while the rest of his team connected on just 13/51. Chinese Taipei shot 12/56 from the field.
Tai-Hao Wu was superb for Taipei with 15 points and seven rebounds, while their swarming team defense kept star Iranian centre Hamed Hadadi to just eight points on 3/12 shooting, his 18 rebounds offset by eight turnovers.
Iran managed to scrape out a win however, even if it wasn’t their most polished performance.
“A win is a win, but we didn’t play good,” Samad said. “If we want to win the championship we should not continue like that.”
Samad was a star in Beijing, but right now London is the last thing on his mind.
“Game by game we will get better," he added.
"We are not looking for the championship now, we just look to the next game which is Qatar, and hopefully we can beat them and get better for the next round.”
Chinese Taipei play Uzbekistan on Day 2 of the FIBA Asia Championship.
“Every time I play, I play 150%. I hate losing, so I do everything to avoid that,” Samad said after scoring 18 points to drag Iran back from a 10-point deficit midway through the third quarter to secure a dogged 49-37 victory over Chinese Taipei.
Samad scored all of his points in the second half, including 10 of Iran’s 12 as they recovered from their 30-20 deficit to lead 32-31 at three quarter time against a Taipei team that was riding the support of a vocal crowd.
“Every time we play against Chinese Taipei it is a tough game. We are a big team and it is very tough for us to play fast, and every time we play against the teams from East Asia it is like this,” said the 28-year-old who averaged 17.2 ppg at the Beijing Olympics.
Samad was injured for the entire international season in 2010, missing the FIBA World Championship. He believes this was an extra spur for the FIBA Asia Championship opener.
“Definitely. I didn’t play any official games for Iran last year, and when I was watching the world championship games on TV it was hard, and now I want to make sure we don’t lose any more official games,” he said.
Samad shot 8/13 for the game in 21 minutes while the rest of his team connected on just 13/51. Chinese Taipei shot 12/56 from the field.
Tai-Hao Wu was superb for Taipei with 15 points and seven rebounds, while their swarming team defense kept star Iranian centre Hamed Hadadi to just eight points on 3/12 shooting, his 18 rebounds offset by eight turnovers.
Iran managed to scrape out a win however, even if it wasn’t their most polished performance.
“A win is a win, but we didn’t play good,” Samad said. “If we want to win the championship we should not continue like that.”
Samad was a star in Beijing, but right now London is the last thing on his mind.
“Game by game we will get better," he added.
"We are not looking for the championship now, we just look to the next game which is Qatar, and hopefully we can beat them and get better for the next round.”
Chinese Taipei play Uzbekistan on Day 2 of the FIBA Asia Championship.
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