LTU/GBR - Kemzura wants more aggression

HOUSTON (FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament/Olympics) - There is no time to spare for Lithuania coach Kestutis Kemzura as he fine-tunes his squad for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) in Caracas, Venezuela.

The opening day of the event is 2 July and Kemzura at last has everyone in camp, including Sarunas Jasikevicius of Panathinaikos and Martynas Pocius of Real Madrid .

Jasikevicius played for Pana in their 3-2 Greek play-off finals defeat to Olympiacos and Pocius was with Madrid in their 3-2 Liga Endesa finals setback to Barcelona.

Both guards played in a warm-up game against Britain over the weekend in Houston and helped the team scrape a 63-61 victory.

A drive by Tomas Delininkaitis with 2.6 seconds remaining lifted the Baltic side to the win.

Kemzura's team prevailed, but he saw that a lot of work needs to be done before the OQT where they will face Nigeria and hosts Venezuela in Group B.

"I would not say that I feel joy after the victory," he said.

"Both teams played well.

"I saw some positive moments in the game of their players. Yes, we won, but the game was extremely difficult."

Kemzura is trying to not only get the tactics right, but also must have the players feeling 100% physically.

"Don't forget that not all basketball players are in the best shape," he said.

"Sometimes we don't have enough aggression and that leads to a chaotic offense."

While Lithuania are trying to make it to the London Games, Great Britain are already assured of their place as the host nation.

They had a chance to win at the buzzer but Dan Clark's attempt from behind the arc was off target.

One of the lynchpins in the British side is big man Joel Freeland and he was irked by another close defeat.

"We went out and played hard, wanting to get the win but couldn't pull it out," Freeland said.

"We have got to start winning these close games as we've lost too many close games like this."

Nigeria had earlier beaten the Brits in a warm-up game.


FIBA