Nigeria Beats Dominican Republic, Becomes Final Team To Qualify For Olympics

In a surprising upset, Nigeria earned the final spot in the men’s basketball field in the Olympics with an 88-73 victory over the Dominican Republic on Sunday night.

It was a do-or-die game for both teams, the third-place game in a tournament that sends the top-three teams to London.

For more, check out our 2012 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament StoryStream.

Lithuania secured their spot in the London Olympics Saturday night with a 109-83 win over the Dominican Republic in the semi-finals of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

The Lithuanian team was led by Jonas Maciulis, who scored 19 points. Jonas Valanciunas, who the Toronto Raptors drafted with the No. 5 pick in the 2011 NBA Draft, scored 17 points and pulled down seven rebounds.

Russia is the first of three teams to qualify from the FIBA Olympic Qualifying tournament following their victory over Nigeria on Saturday night. They led their semifinal game wire-to-wire and held on for an 85-77 win, despite a solid fourth quarter showing from Nigeria. The tournament does not have a championship game, but Nigeria will have a second chance to make the Olympics by defeating the loser of the Dominican Republic-Lithuania semifinal.

Nigeria kept things close in the first quarter, but managed to score just eight points in the second quarter as Russia jumped out to a 46-31 halftime lead. Nigeria’s offense picked up in the second half, but they were unable to make up the deficit.

The FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournamnet continues Saturday, with semifinal games that will punch two country’s tickets to the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Nigeria will face Russia and Lithuania will match-up against the Dominican Republic in Caracas, Venezuela, with the winners offically qualifying for London.

Four European teams were able to advance out of pool play and into the single-elimination tournament at the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying tournament in Caracas, Venezuela. Heading into the final game of the night Friday, however, the Euros were upset in two out of their three games heading into the Lithuania-Puerto Rico nightcap.

Lithuania looked like it might suffer the same fate, but the tournament favorites were able to hold on with a 76-72 victory to advance to Saturday’s semifinals. The Lithuanians will now be fighting with three other teams -- Dominican Republic, Nigeria and Russia -- for the final three berths in the 2012 London Olympics.

Nigeria advanced to the semifinals at the 2012 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament with an 80-79 win over Greece on Friday. Ike Diogu led the way with 17 points and 12 rebounds, setting up a bout with Russia for an Olympic bid.

After two quarters, Greece held a 12-point lead, 42-30. Vasileios Spanoulis scored 25 points to lead the Greeks. It was perhaps telling that the 6’4” guard led the team in rebounds (7), however. For the game, Nigeria held a 36-27 advantage on the boards, 16 of which came on the offensive glass.

Olympic basketball qualifying continues at the FIBA World Tournament in Venezuela, and with group play giving way to the quarterfinals Friday, Russia started off the day’s games with an easy win over Angola. The Russians won 80-65, as Vitaly Fridzon scored 18 points and Alexander Kaun added 17 to lead the Russians to the semifinals.

For Angola, the loss means they’re eliminated from the 2012 Olympics, and alas, on the 20th anniversary of the Dream Team’s ride through Barcelona and 1992 Games, there will be no reunion between the Americans and Team Angola. (Charles Barkley elbowing that guy will live on in our hearts, though.)

The 2012 London Olympics are coming up on us rather quickly, and by the end of the weekend, the world will know which teams they’ll be watching go to work on winning a gold medal. The FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament has completed pool play, leaving eight teams to play a single-elimination tournament over the next few days that will see the top three teams advance.

The top two teams won’t play a championship game -- they’ll just head straight to the Olympics -- while the third team getting the automatic bid will be decided with a traditional third-place game. Friday’s action will get us to that point, too, because all four first-round games will take place on the same day (it’s like March Madness, except in July and in Venezuela!).

The Olympic Qualifying Tournament got off to a quality start on Monday, but there are still two days of pool play left until the eight-team single-elimination tournament gets underway. Tuesday’s schedule again features quite a few mismatches on paper, but there’s a little added pressure as Macedonia, Jordan and Korea could all be eliminated with a loss in their second game.

The top two teams from each three-team pool (groups listed here) will advance to Friday’s tournament, and from there, the top three teams will advance to the 2012 London Olympics. None of that can happen with teams that struggle with poor pool play, however.

The 2012 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament will take place all week in Caracas, Venezuela, but it was one of the Dream Team’s original victims that scored the biggest triumph of the tournament’s first day on Monday. Angola got an 88-84 win over Macedonia in Group D action, with Eduardo Mingas dropping 24 points, dishing six assists and adding four rebounds to lead the African nation to victory.

Greece had the day’s most lopsided win, with a 107-63 romp over Jordan; five Greek players finished in double figures, and Jordan had just 23 points at halftime.

The 2012 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament tips off on Monday in Caracas, Venezuela, with eight teams taking the first step at moving their country closer to playing in the London Olympics. It’s only pool play, but a pretty important step considering just one loss could be enough to dash a team’s Olympic hopes.

Each team will play the other two members of their group (pairings available here) from Monday through Wednesday with the top two finishers in each advancing to the actual eight-team tournament taking place beginning Friday. Monday’s schedule includes the following games: