Following Friday’s EuroBasket 2013 semifinals action, only two days remain in the tournament. Lithuania and France booked trips to Sunday’s title game, leaving Croatia and Spain left to play for third place.
2013 EuroBasket results: Tony Parker lifts France to title game vs. Lithuania
France edged Spain in overtime to secure a spot in the championship game against Lithuania, which secured its spot earlier in the day.
Christian Petersen
Lithuania 77, Croatia 62 -- Linas Kleiza scored 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead Lithuania past Croatia in the EuroBasket semifinals. It was an impressive victory for Lithuania, perhaps because of how strongly Croatia had looked up to this point.
Croatia had won eight EuroBasket games in a row since losing its first game to Spain, but ran into the wrong team in the semis.
The game was tied at 31 with five minutes left in the first half, but Lithuania separated and never looked back. They led 40-37 at the half but went on a 29-12 run in the first 13 minutes of the second half to build a lead that reached 20 points.
Toronto Raptors center Jonas Valanciunas arguably gave his strongest performance of the tournament. He only scored six points but had five rebounds and five blocks on the day. Meanwhile, forward Jonas Maciulis led Lithuania with 23 points. As a team, Lithuania held Croatia to 35 percent shooting and itself hit 39 percent from three-point range.
Bojan Bogdanovic, whose rights are owned by the Brooklyn Nets, led Croatia with 15 points, but he didn't have much help. None of his teammates scored more than nine.
France 75, Spain 72 (OT) - Tony Parker carried France to a spot in the finals with 32 points on 11-of-19 shooting with six rebounds and two steals. He made 8-of-9 free throws, sinking four in a row during the overtime period.
Antoine Diot was the only other French scorer to reach double-digit points, scoring 10. His free throws settled the three-point victory for the French.
Marc Gasol led Spain with 19 points and nine rebounds, but committed six of the team's 18 turnovers. He put up a desperate three-point shot as time expired, but only found air. Rudy Fernandez added 17 points and Sergio Rodriguez put in 11 points in the loss.
Ukraine 66, Italy 58 -- A sluggish and small Italian team didn't have the shooting touch on Friday, and the result was a loss to Ukraine that sent Italy to the seventh-place game against Serbia. For the first time in history, Ukraine qualified for the 2014 FIBA World Cup with the victory and will next play Slovenia in the fifth-place game.
American Pooh Jeter led Ukraine with 20 points.
Spurs guard Marco Belinelli shot a dismal 2-of-19 from the field and Pistons forward Luigi Datome didn't do much better by going 4-of-11. As a team, Italy hit just 32 percent of its shots. Guard Pietro Aradori led the team with 15 points and 20-year-old forward Alessandro Gentile added 10.
The Ukranian squad didn’t do much better, hitting 39 percent from the floor, but its size kept the Italians out of the paint or shooting tough shots when they did get there.
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