Valanciunas, Lithuania reward traveling fans with a win

MANILA (Philippines) - Egypt put up a fight, but it was the yellow, green and red part of the crowd celebrating a knock out punch. Lithuania claimed their first win, leading from the start to the finish in front of 7,229 fans in Manila, with a 93-67 scoreline.

Lithuania joined Montenegro at 1-0 in Group D, while Egypt share the lower half of the standings with Mexico after the first game day defeats in the Mall of Asia Arena.

Turning point: Tip-off. Jonas Valanciunas must have watched the Nikola Vucevic show in the first game of the day in this group, and decided to replicate the exact same recipe. Lithuania's big guy had 13 points early on in the game, converting a pair of his trademark pump-fakes on the perimeter into drives and dunks.

The lead ballooned to 20 points early in the second quarter, getting the home crowd involved in trying to help Egypt claw their way back. All to no avail, as Kazys Maksvytis' men got to celebrate their first win with the other part of the stands, where a big Lithuanian group of fans kept banging their drums for 40 minutes.

TCL Player of the Game: Although Margiris Normantas had a team-high 18 points in 18 minutes, the honor belongs to Jonas Valanciunas. He needed less than 14 minutes to pick up a 15-point, 10-rebound double-double, setting the tone in the first half and not allowing the Pharaohs to make it interesting.

 

He entered the game once more in the fourth quarter, getting another four minute run to close the game, but stayed at 15 and 10, respectively.

Stats don't lie: There were question marks about the depth of this Lithuania squad with all their absentees, but those questions are answered now. The Green Machine always plays as one, distributing minutes and points across the board with a 55-11 edge in points off the bench, more than enough to keep the pace of the game higher than Egypt wanted it.

Bottom line: The two European teams are off to strong starts un Group D, and they have a chance to set up a date at 2-0 both, because Lithuania are up against Mexico next, while Egypt have to face Montenegro.

Egypt's best player on the day was Assem Marei, using a bit of his Lithuanian knowledge from his playing days in Siauliai. The center collected 14 points and 9 rebounds.

They said: "They are a very experienced team. We had a good battle today, and after this game we got better as a team, facing a great opponent like that. That will help us tremendously in the upcoming games against other opponents that aren't maybe as strong as Lithuania. All in all, it was a good game for us." - Assem Marei, Egypt

"This is the first time for us in a long time being at the World Cup, starting with probably the top ranked team in our pool. We knew it was going to be a challenge, for spurts there we played really well. We had some moments in the second quarter, some in the third where we were really good. Just gotta watch film, gotta go back, try to be better against Montenegro." - Roy Rana, Egypt head coach

"It's a very important win for us because this was the first game of the tournament. We needed to gain our confidence, step by step and we need to fix our problems in the defense, and in offense. We need to keep working." - Margiris Normantas, Lithuania

"First game is different, a lot of emotions, a lot of expectations, and I'm happy that we won this game. Every game in World Cup matters. It will get harder later, and we hope we can go far in this tournament." - Kazys Maksvytis, Lithuania head coach

FIBA