After two quarters of solid basketball, Lithuania
faded away in the second half in an important Olympic duel against France, losing 82-74 (25-21, 14-22, 20-9, 23-22) on Thursday morning to drop to 1-2 in Group A
with two more games to go.
France got off the mark strong, running away to
an early 15-6 lead four minutes into the game, but Jonas Valanciunas and
Martynas Pocius scored five points in a row to cut the deficit to four points.
Lithuania took its first lead after Antanas
Kavaliauskas made a bucket from under the rim and Pocius hit another
three-pointer to make it 26-25.
Although the Baltic side was up 44-39 at the
halftime break, France upped the intensity in the second half and ran away
behind a terrific 20-9 third quarter, sealing the victory with solid play in
the final period.
Martynas Pocius scored 18 points for Lithuania
and Linas Kleiza added 17 points and 7 rebounds, but no other player reached
double digits with Simas Jasaitis finishing the game with 8 points.
Tony Parker was unstoppable for France with 27
points, Nicolas Batum collected 21, while Boris Diaw flirted with a
triple-double, after finishing the game with 10 points, 8 assists and 6
rebounds.
