Day 6 in the 2016 Rio Olympics Men’s Basketball tournament had Croatia nipping Brazil, Spain finally breaking into the win column, and Lithuania remaining undefeated after surviving Argentina.
*The following also appears on FIBA.com.
CRO over BRA, 80-76
Croatia claimed another huge victory in what is turning out to be a very sweet 2016 with a 80-76 triumph over Brazil at the Carioca Arena 1.
In a battle of teams with 1-1 marks, Bojan Bogdanovic underlined his status as one of the best players it the game with a 33-point explosion. Time and time again he attacked the Brazil defense and usually succeeded.
Dario Saric also did a little bit of everything (19 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists) as Croatia, a team that had to make it to Rio via the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament, moved closer to a spot in the Quarter-Finals.
ESP over NGR, 96-87
Spain dodged a bullet fired by Nigeria on Thursday night and won 96-87 to boost their chances of a top-four finish and a place in the Quarter-Finals.
Silver-medalists at the last two Olympics, Spain jumped out to an early 16-point lead in the bizarre setting of an empty Carioca Arena 1 as Federal Police and the Brazilian Army carried out a controlled explosion following the discovery of a backpack that had been left near a trash can in a bathroom.
The Spaniards appeared to be cruising but then Nigeria had a huge turnaround and, thanks in large part to Chamberlain Oguchi's three-point shooting, the D'Tigers took the lead by a point late in the last minute of the third quarter.
Spain hurt themselves when Pau Gasol argued with a referee about a foul and drew a technical. That put Nigeria into the bonus and Ekene Ibekwe sank two free-throws before Josh Akognon made the technical free-throw.
Spain took the lead at the start of the fourth quarter and held on for the victory.
Oguchi was on the losing side but he performed in heroic fashion with a blistering display from long range. As a team, Nigeria were 13-of-35 from three-point range and Oguchi, the AfroBasket 2015 MVP, drilled 7-of-12 as part of a game-high 24 points.
LTU over ARG, 81-73
Lithuania improved to 3-0 in Group B after getting the better of Argentina, 81-73, in front of a packed house at Carioca Arena 1 on Thursday night.
There was little to separate the two teams in the first half, which ended with the Lithuanians heading back to the locker room up 30-27.
Mindaugas Kuzminskas spearheaded a 12-3 run late in the third quarter that gave the European side the first double-digit lead of the game, 57-47.
However, Argentina dug deep and scored 12 unanswered points to edge in front 61-59 with 6:51 left to play.
Lithuania regained the lead on a Jonas Maciulis three-pointer with 4:33 to go and extended it to 77-71 when Renaldas Seibutis made good on a lay-up and ensuing free-throw just inside the final minute. There was a further blow for Argentina as Luis Scola fouled out on the play.
With 46.9 seconds, Manu Ginobili missed a pair of free-throws for the third time and there was no such outcome for Seibutis who was a perfect 4-of-4 in two trips to the foul line in the closing seconds of the game.
Kuzminskas had a game-high 23 points on 9-of-13 shooting. He accounted for 9 of the points in Lit run late in the third quarter.
All images are from FIBA.
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