Perfect second half seals the deal for Lithuania in European classic

MANILA (Philippines) - Greece looked like the better team in the first half, opening up an eight-point lead, but Lithuania stormed back after the break to remain perfect and advance to the Quarter-Finals after a 92-67 win.

They pulled the United States through, also, as those two are currently at 4-0, cannot be caught by two 2-2 teams in Greece and Montenegro.

Turning point: Coach Kazys Maksvytis is not a man of many words, but after a slow first half, he probably shared his opinion in the locker room. His team came out of the tunnel with a whole different approach, hitting shots from deep, stopping Greece from getting near the rim.

Just like that, a 25-15 third quarter put them in front, and when they held Greece to four points in the first five minutes of the fourth stanza, it was clear the area around the Mall of Asia Arena would become vienpusis eismas - that's Lithuanian for "one-way street."

Fourth quarter score? 28-9 Lithuania. Second half score? 53-24 Lithuania.

TCL Player of the Game: Rokas Jokubaitis has arrived! Lithuania have been searching for their true point guard leader, the one to fill Sarunas Jasikevicius' or Mantas Kalnietis' shoes, and seems that a lefty 22-year-old from Mazeikiai is their man.

The point guard finished with 19 points and 6 assists, while turning the ball over just once, and stealing it three times.

Stats don't lie: Coach Dimitris Itoudis said his team had fine games moving the ball, and was capable of dishing out 20+ assists in a game. Today was not one of those days, Greece only handed out 11 assists today, struggling to get any easy looks. Lithuania had 25 assists.

Bottom line: Lithuania missed the Quarter-Finals in two straight FIBA EuroBasket events and the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019, while failing to qualify to the Tokyo Olympics, as well. The bleeding is stopped now, they are back to the elite eight phase, with a game in hand, too.

They get to enjoy their bout with the United States on Sunday. Greece will face Montenegro in the other game, Thomas Walkup was their best player against Lithuania with 21 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists.

They said: "We started the first half a little bit slow. We didn't play as aggressive as we typically do, especially defensively. Coming into the second half, we all had the same plan: come out aggressive and execute the game plan." - Ignas Brazdeikis, Lithuania

"Congratulations to our fans and our team on reaching the Top 8. There were two parts of the game. The first part wasn't strong enough, wasn't tough enough to change the game. But everything changed in the second half and I'm very happy how the team reacted and changed their mentality." - Kazys Maksvytis, Lithuania head coach

"I think we collapsed a little bit after the third period in the fourth and the result the one that in my opinion shows our effort, this deficit. They played very tough, we made mistakes and they scored in very high percentages. Congrats to them and I wish them all the best, but it obviously sucks and it hurts for us." - Ioannis Papapetrou, Greece

"I would like to congratulate Lithuania and I wish them the best of luck all the way. We opened the game pretty well. We managed to establish a better status quo, a better offensive and defensive plays and get the lead with a big margin. We ended the fourth quarter with not getting into the bonus and Lithuania had scored 12-of-16 three-pointers in the second half, which psychologically knocked us down lots of times." - Dimitris Itoudis, Greece head coach

FIBA