MANILA, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) — Lithuania gained Group D in FIBA World Cup with a 91-71 conquer Montenegro right here on Tuesday, becoming a member of Germany, the Dominican Republic and Canada to maneuver into the spherical of 16 with excellent data.
Both Lithuania and Montenegro had secured the spots in spherical of 16 by beating Egypt and Mexico respectively earlier than Tuesday’s video games, so the showdown was a matter for the highest place.
Lithuania had gained six of their final seven video games within the preliminary spherical of the FIBA World Cup, with 5 of these wins ending with margins of 23 or extra factors whereas Lithuania had scored greater than 90 factors in 4 of their final 5 video games within the preliminary spherical of the World Cup.
Despite Montenegro’s 27-26 lead within the first quarter, Lithuania’s superior three pointer proportion and rebounding allowed them to run away with 66-50 after three quarters and saved the alternative at bay.
The rebounding potential made the distinction, as Lithuania led 44-30 in rebound, Nikola Vucevic was nonetheless the pillar for Montenegro as the middle acquired a game-high of 19 factors, whereas Lithuania had 4 gamers scoring in double digits with Rokas Jokubaitis additionally offering 19.
“First of all, congratulations to the players, they did a great job today and after three quarters, we controlled the game, it is related to our defense. It is an important victory, we’re very happy to win against such a team,” mentioned Lithuania’s coach Kazys Maksvytis.
In one other Group D fixture, Ehab Amin’s 22 factors, 10 assists and 6 rebounds surged Egypt to beat Mexico 100-72, selecting up its first World Cup win since 1994. As of Tuesday, all 5 African groups have one win.
Despite being assured to complete as the highest finisher of Group E, Germany refused to develop into complacent, as evidenced by the way in which it took management of the Finland recreation within the center quarters earlier than cruising in direction of its third win, staying undefeated whereas conserving Susijengi winless.
Dennis Schroder and Isaac Bonga delivered 15 factors apiece for Die Mannschaft, whereas Johannes Thiemann additionally provided 13 factors for a game-high effectivity of 19.
“We expected to advance, our thing was playing one game at a time. Obviously it’s nice to go into the next phase with 3-0, but we’re just in the beginning of what we want to do. The peak of the mountain is here, we’re halfway up. We have higher expectations,” mentioned Germany head coach Gordie Herbert.
Also in Group E, Japan failed to increase its momentum towards Finland because it fell to Australia 109-89, dropping into the 17-32 classification, whereas the Boomers completed the Group behind Germany.
After back-to-back defeats, France finally registered its first win in Group H with a hard-fought 85-79 victory over Lebanon. A 17-point efficiency made Evan Fournier develop into the all-time main scorer on the FIBA Basketball World Cup for Les Bleus.
In a blockbuster for Group H, Canada sank Latvia 101-75, securing the highest place and leaving the European aspect to the second.
The Dominican Republic grew to become the primary staff from Group A to advance to the second spherical because it noticed off Angola 75-67.
The Caribbean staff’s win, coupled with Italy’s 90-83 victory over the Philippines, allowed the Azzurri to remove Angola to cap off the preliminary spherical as runner-up, whereas the co-host has to maneuver into the 17-32 classification spherical with a 0-3 group end.
10 groups have booked their berths in spherical of 16 after 5 matchdays, and one other 6 can be selected Wednesday.