Perfection: Lithuania stifle Montenegro to advance at 3-0

MANILA (Philippines) - It was supposed to be the European battle for the top of the group for 40 minutes, but instead, coach Kazys Maksvytis' men held Montenegro to just 23 points in the second half to take a convincing 91-71 win  for the Group D crown.

Having taken a perfect 3-0 record to the Second Round, Lithuania are now set to face the United States and the winner of Greece v New Zealand, while Montenegro also advance but with a 2-1 record.

Turning point: Both Montenegro and Lithuania were hot shooting the ball in the first quarter, combining for 53 points in those 10 minutes. However, Lithuania fine-tuned their defense and kept the offense going, winning the second and third quarter by 17 points, building a lead which could not be touched over the last ten minutes.

Their defensive coverages saw multiple tricks, with Jonas Valanciunas backing off of Dino Radoncic and daring him to shoot, with Tadas Sedekerskis trying to push Nikola Vucevic and test his height with speed, while the second unit had the usual matchups with Donatas Motiejunas as the "five" man.

Different looks caused confusion in Montenegro's offense, keeping them at a safe distance from Lithuania.

TCL Player of the Game: It was supposed to be a battle of bigs, but both Nikola Vucevic and Jonas Valanciunas had quiet nights, by their incredibly high standards. Rokas Jokubaitis made the game his own, 19 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds for the point guard.

Stats don't lie: Montenegro's 5-of-31 shooting night from deep would put them in trouble of defeating against any competition, let alone a juggernaut like Lithuania.

Bottom line: It's looking good for Lithuania right now, as potential opens up to reach the Quarter-Finals even if they fall short against the United States in the Second Round.

Montenegro have a mountain to climb in the Second Round at 2-1. Kendrick Perry, Marko Simonovic and Nikola Vucevic scored all but 26 points for coach Bosko Radovic.

They said: "They made it very tough for us tonight. Their aggressiveness, physicality got us out of our stuff a little bit. It led to a lot of our misses, we didn't respond to it, we rushed to some decisions. I'm proud we fought until the end, but when you shoot like this you're not gonna have a lot of chance." - Nikola Vucevic, Montenegro

"We started the game really well, so I wouldn't say we were nervous, at least not in the first ten minutes. Maybe we could've had a couple of good defenses more, we had a couple of over-help situations which allowed Kuzminskas to shoot, but then in the second quarter, I don't know why we started missing all these shots, why we were so confused on offense. There was a stretch of five straight possessions where we missed three wide open three-pointers and two layups. If we made two of those, we would've stayed close, but this way, it was too much, especially against a team like Lithuania." - Bosko Radovic, Montenegro head coach

"This team is special. As you know, we have a lot of absentees, but despite that, guys who came adapted really, really well, and out of the court we have a great atmosphere. We don't have too much talent, Jonas is obviously way more talented than the others, and others are kinda like more or less the same level, which is to help the team as much as possible." - Mindaugas Kuzminskas, Lithuania

"He's a very important guy to us, our point guard, young kid who needed to get confidence. After the first games, we knew that he could play, and he had a good last couple of games and we hope that he will continue with the same pace and the same level throughout the championship." - Kazys Maksvytis, Lithuania head coach, talking about Jokubaitis

The game report will be updated shortly. Check back soon for Game Highlights.

FIBA