Toronto Raptors center Jonas Valanciunas had 12 points and 13 rebounds to lead Lithuania over Turkey 73-61 in the FIBA World Cup quarter-finals in Barcelona.
Valanciunas battled center Omer Asik, who had 11 points, 10 rebounds and four fouls.
Lithuania out-rebounded Turkey 36-32 and made 10 of 19 threes, compared with Turkey’s 3 of 18.
JV scored Lithuania’s first four points on a put-back and a mid-range jumper to draw Asik away from the basket.
A good switch by Turkey caught JV out of position, and he seemed to take a shot to the face at 36-30. With two fouls, he was subbed out only two minutes into the quarter.
While he sat for four minutes, Turkey tied the game at 42-42.
At 51-44, he nabbed a key rebound and drew Asik’s 4th foul.
He drew a foul on a drive from the low post and hit both free throws for a 58-51 lead.
He scored off the glass to go up 68-59 and then went off to deal with a shoe issue.
He got some advice from his teammates.
“We said nothing special,” Ksistof Lavrinovic said after the game. “We were trying to convince him he was having a great game and he has to push us to a victory. He’s improving each game and we hope he can continue in this way.”
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