San Juan, Jul 2 (EFE).- Lithuania and Italy opened the men’s pre-Olympic basketball tournament in Puerto Rico on Tuesday with victories over Mexico and Bahrain, 96-84 and 114-53, to advance with 1-0 records in their respective Groups A and B.
The Lithuanians opened the challenge held at the Puerto Rico Coliseum in San Juan, losing to the Mexicans, 0-9, but after a match between the stellar Lithuanian center Domantas Sabonis and Tadas Sedekerskis, they closed the score and subsequently dominated the first quarter, 28-22.
The second period started off fairly evenly until Lithuanian Marius Grigonis scored eight points in a row, including two three-pointers, to help his team take a good lead of 47-35.
The Mexicans tried everything possible to get closer to the scoreboard, achieving this goal with only five points to close the first half of the match.
But the Lithuanians wanted to show that they are one of the great powers of world basketball and with a 17-point difference in the third period, they went on an 83-61 run.
In the fourth and final quarter, the Mexicans tried to come back as much as possible to get closer to the Lithuanians, winning by ten points, but it was impossible.
The offensive leader of the challenge was Grigonis with 21 points, followed by 12 points each from Sabonis and Sedekerskis.
This was the third time that Lithuania and Mexico met in their history, all of which were won by the European team.
Italy, led by 14 points each from veteran Danilo Gallinari and Nicolo Melli, defeated Bahrain by a wide margin of 114-53.
Italy dominated the game from start to finish in all aspects of the match, both offensively with their collective game by scoring 60% of their field goals, their long-distance shots by hitting 11 three-pointers and their defense with 15 steals.
The initial quarter was very weak offensively for both teams, although Italy dominated it 19-1, although little by little they got into gear for the second half and won the first part of the game, 47-25.
Despite this 22-point advantage, Italy continued its crushing dominance over Bairén in the third period, winning by twelve more points, extending the score to 34 points and thus taking it into the final period until the second final.
In that match, seven of Italy’s 12 players scored in double figures.
Italy’s next match is against Puerto Rico on Thursday, while Bahrain will face the hosts tomorrow, Wednesday.
The national teams of Bahrain, Ivory Coast, Italy, Lithuania, Mexico and Puerto Rico will compete for the only ticket to Paris 2024 in this short six-day tournament. EFE
jm/cav
2024-07-03 03:02:23
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