OLYM - Mejri calls for Tunisia to find more talent

LONDON (Olympics) - Tunisia saw their run in the Olympic Basketball Tournament for Men come to an end on Monday on something of a disappointing note as they saw a 14-point lead evaporate in a 76-63 loss to Lithuania.

The African champions entered the game knowing they still had an outside chance of qualifying for the Quarter-Finals. In order to do so, they had to beat Lithuania by 12 points and then needed France to beat Nigeria later in the day.

Adel Tlatli's team looked like they were ready to take care of their side of things as they got off to a great start and held a double-digit lead for a good portion of the first half. They limited the Lithuanians to just seven first-quarter points and went into the locker room at the intermission up 35-29.

However, the game swung in the favour of the European powerhouse in the second half as they cut the deficit to 54-50 by the end of the third period. They carried the momentum into the final frame where they outscored Tunisia 26-9 to put the result beyond doubt.

Tunisia big man Salah Mejri - who paced his team with 16 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks - reflected on the game and Tunisia's play in the Preliminary Round.

"We started the competition very bad against Nigeria and the team got better and better," he said. "Our curb was ascendent. Every game we played better and better but that will not give the right result if we have only six, seven or eight players maximum who are playing."

Tunisia turned a few heads as they more than held their own against Argentina and rallied from a 20-point deficit to only lose by four against France.

Mejri believes his team's lack of depth cost might have cost his team some wins.

"Today I played 39 minutes. Ok I'm not speaking just about myself but the six other players who are playing full-time almost, 30 minutes. It's hard. We are playing every a game every two days," he explained.

"Everybody saw that we had perfect 30 minutes. I think if we play only 30 minutes in basketball we could have won this game and other games."

"Nigeria, France, Argentina...we played very good but in the end, as I told you, we got really down and we couldn't finish those games as we started."

Tlatli understood his centre's frustration.

"It's a problem," he said of Mejri's heavy minutes.

"We have too much a problem on defense when we play without Salah. We don't have the problem with the other posts. But in the post five we have a problem because he's our rebounder."

"It's our problem in the post five (to find a back-up) and also we don't have a second playmaker."

Both coach and player agree on what the team needs to do fairly urgently - find some new talent.

"We have to find some other good Tunisian players. Ok I know it's difficult because the 12 players who are here are the best Tunisian players we have," said Mejri.

Tlatli has it in mind to use next year's FIBA Africa Championship to test some young blood.

"The next step is to think about young players to be in this team and to prepare for African Championship in 2013 and 2015 maybe in Tunisia," he said.

"In 2013, I think we will play with this same team, maybe include two or three young players. There are five or six players who stay in the team for sure."

As for Mejri, despite his team's inability to get a win, he looked back on his time in London fondly.

"I will not say I'm disappointed. I'm happy with how the team played, I'm happy with being here with the team. I'm happy with the performance we achieved. Ok we didn't win any game. If we won a game that would be perfect for us," he said.

"I think it (the Olympics) is something really special. I'm 26 now so the next will be when I'm 30. I hope I will be at the next Olympics.

"I really enjoyed this experience. London is very nice, people were lovely. If they let me stay, I'll stay a month more!"

FIBA