Lithuania crush China
Thursday, 21 August 2008
BEIJING, Aug 20: Lithuania shattered China's hope to make history on home soil by winning 94-68 in a quarter-final match of the men's basketball competitions at the Beijing Olympics Wednesday.
Lithuania will meet Spain, which beat Croatia 72-59 in previous match, in Wednesday's semifinals.
China repeated their eighth-placing finishings at the 2004 Athens Olympics, but failed to live up to their vows of making a breakthrough here.
Sarunas Jasikevicius shot 5-out-of-6 from behind the arc to lead Lithuania, which were 13-out-of-31 on 3-pointers, with 23 points and six assists.
Ramunas Siskauskas had three three-pointers and Linas Kleiza had two to collect 15 points each. Lithuania defeated China 95-75 in the quarter-finals at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Yao Ming led China with 19 points and seven rebounds while Yi Jianlian adding 11 points and nine rebounds, which were 4-out-of-21 on 3-pointer, the worst in their six matches of the tournament.
"I had a different Olympic trip this time compared to the 2004 Athens. To finish eighth here is much more difficult than that of four years ago. We enjoyed the Beijing Olympics and played many exciting matches. It's really a pity we didn't make a better result here," Yao said.
The Houston Rockets' center began his national career in 1997 with the best results were the twice eight-placed finishings at Olympics.
"I wished the courage would carry us to the next round, to make a record in the history of Chinese basketball, but I failed. Lithuania did a great job on defending me. They also shut down our offence from the outside shooters," he added.
Yao said he was not sure whether he would compete at the 2012 London Olympics as the 28-year-old center had underwent three surgeries in the past four years.
"Yao is the center piece of the Chinese squad. The whole world knows that and every team knows to defend Yao. We really wanted the win but we didn't going well on either ends of the court," Chinese Du Feng said.
Lithuania capitalised 12 steals with 16 fast-break points, compared to China's zero. They concluded every quarter with a 3-pointer when China failed to shut down Lithuania's sharp shooters.
"We defended Yao well. We knew it would be too hard to defend him one on one, so we doulbled him as much as we could, and that's the key to our victory," Lithuania's head coach Ramunas Butautas said.
Lithuania will meet Spain, which beat Croatia 72-59 in previous match, in Wednesday's semifinals.
China repeated their eighth-placing finishings at the 2004 Athens Olympics, but failed to live up to their vows of making a breakthrough here.
Sarunas Jasikevicius shot 5-out-of-6 from behind the arc to lead Lithuania, which were 13-out-of-31 on 3-pointers, with 23 points and six assists.
Ramunas Siskauskas had three three-pointers and Linas Kleiza had two to collect 15 points each. Lithuania defeated China 95-75 in the quarter-finals at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Yao Ming led China with 19 points and seven rebounds while Yi Jianlian adding 11 points and nine rebounds, which were 4-out-of-21 on 3-pointer, the worst in their six matches of the tournament.
"I had a different Olympic trip this time compared to the 2004 Athens. To finish eighth here is much more difficult than that of four years ago. We enjoyed the Beijing Olympics and played many exciting matches. It's really a pity we didn't make a better result here," Yao said.
The Houston Rockets' center began his national career in 1997 with the best results were the twice eight-placed finishings at Olympics.
"I wished the courage would carry us to the next round, to make a record in the history of Chinese basketball, but I failed. Lithuania did a great job on defending me. They also shut down our offence from the outside shooters," he added.
Yao said he was not sure whether he would compete at the 2012 London Olympics as the 28-year-old center had underwent three surgeries in the past four years.
"Yao is the center piece of the Chinese squad. The whole world knows that and every team knows to defend Yao. We really wanted the win but we didn't going well on either ends of the court," Chinese Du Feng said.
Lithuania capitalised 12 steals with 16 fast-break points, compared to China's zero. They concluded every quarter with a 3-pointer when China failed to shut down Lithuania's sharp shooters.
"We defended Yao well. We knew it would be too hard to defend him one on one, so we doulbled him as much as we could, and that's the key to our victory," Lithuania's head coach Ramunas Butautas said.