SPAIN 84 – Lithuania 70
The Spain Mens National Team have been put through a scare during the first four games of the Eurobasket Championship in Poland. Hailed as the favorites to win, Spain has struggled on offense and defense. However, today against big rivalry team Lithuania, Spain stepped up their game or faced a chance of being ilminatied from the championships. Spain started good but the big change came during the second quarter where Pau Gasol sparked the team on offense and defensive stops. Spain went into the half up 40-32 and started the 3rd strong, even leading at most 20 points.
Pau Gasol led all scorers and Spain will now face Eurobasket host Poland on Wednesday. It will be a very important game!
Box Score
SPAIN, 84 (15+25+24+20): Rubio (5), Navarro (13), Rudy Fernández (11), Garbajosa (10) y Pau Gasol (19) –starters– López (5), Llull (-), Marc Gasol (9), Felipe Reyes (7), Mumbrú (5), Cabezas (-) y Claver (-).
LITHUANIA, 70 (24+8+11+27): Kalnietis (8), Maciulis (2), Lukauskis (-), K.Lavrinovic (6) y Petravicius (13) –starters– Jomantas (11), Javtokas (10), Kleiza (8), D.Lavrinovic (4) y Delininkaitis (8).
With the marks of top Spanish National teams and figures such as Rafael Nadal who just won the Wimbledon after a 44 year drought for Spanish Players and the Spanish Soccer team who also won the Euro2008 after not winning in the 40s. The national teams for Spain both women and men are hoping to follow in those footsteps in Pekin during the Olympic Summer Basketball Games!