Day 4 in the 2016 Rio Olympics Menβs Basketball tournament continued to be awesome with Spain faltering again and both Lithuania and Argentina surviving tough tests.
*The following also appears on FIBA.com.
BRA over ESP, 66-65
Brazil scraped a 66-65 victory over Spain with Marquinhos getting a tap-in off Marcelo Huertas' miss in the waning seconds.
Beaten by Lithuania in their first game, the Olympic hosts led by as many as 11 points but couldn't pull away from a veteran-laden Spain team.
The EuroBasket 2015 champions, hoping to reach a third Olympic Final in a row but losers in their first game to Croatia at the death, looked as if they might snatch victory from the jaws of defeat after Sergio Llull gave them a 64-63 advantage with 2:00 remaining.
After Llull made 1 of 2 free-throws, Nene sank only 1 of 2 for Brazil.
Nene fouled Pau Gasol and the superstar misfired on both attempts from the stripe. Marquinhos then hit his go-ahead shot with 5.5 seconds remaining. Spain tried to counter with Llull after a timeout but he failed to get off a good shot while driving to the right.
LTU over NGR, 89-80
Nigeria were understrength but they gave as good as they got against powerhouse Lithuania on Tuesday night, only for the Baltic side to ride a strong third quarter to an 89-80 victory.
With Jonas Maciulis rising to the occasion and scoring 13 of his 21 points in the third period when Lithuania outscored the AfroBasket 2015 winners 29-13, the European team went from trailing by five at half-time to leading 65-54 heading into the final frame.
Nigeria, who lost big man Shane Lawal to injury in Sunday's defeat to Argentina, were also without Michael Gbinije (illness). They stayed within striking distance in the fourth quarter but could not get enough stops on defense and fell to 0-2.
Captain Ike Diogu scored 19 points and point guard Michael Umeh, 17, for D'Tigers.
ARG over CRO, 90-82
Argentina survived a fourth quarter comeback by Croatia to just about hold them off for a 90-82 win at Carioca Arena 1 on Tuesday night.
Argentina led by as many as 20 points late in the third quarter but Croatia rallied to get within 85-81 with just over a minute left to play, before Sergio Hernandez's men secured the victory from the free-throw line to improve to 2-0 in Group B. The loss dropped Croatia to 1-1
The score was tied at 22 to end the first quarter and it was the Argentinians who pulled away thanks to consecutive three-pointers from Nicolas Laprovittola that put them up 39-31 with 4:41 left in the second quarter and they went into the locker room with a 46-40 lead.
Facundo Campazzo spearheaded a 15-3 spurt to open the third quarter - included a run of 9 unanswered points - which gave them a commanding 61-43 advantage. The lead reached 20 when Campazzo fed Roberto Acuna for an easy basket with 2:53 left in the period.
Down 71-54 to start the fourth quarter, Croatia were able to call upon stars Bojan Bogdanovic and Dario Saric while also getting key contributions off the bench from Mario Hezonja and Luka Babic as they cut away at the deficit. However, they couldn't get any closer than four and just missed out on an incredible come from behind win.
All images are from FIBA.
FOR MORE ON THE 2016 RIO OLYMPICS, CHECK THIS OUT!
FOLLOW THE AUTHOR ON TWITTER: @hoopnut
LIKE OUR FAN PAGE ON FACEBOOK, TOO!
Tweet
0 Comment