Sargiunas carries Lithuania to two wins over Turkey

KAUNAS (2016 FIBA U17 World Championship) - Ignas Sargiunas scored in double figures twice as Lithuania picked up two victories over Turkey in a pair of 2016 FIBA U17 World Championship warm-up games in Kaunas. 

Sargiunas tallied 11 points as Lithuania came back from a 15-point deficit to beat Turkey 69-64 in the first of the back-to-back match-ups. He followed that up with a 7-of-8 three-point shooting effort as part of a 27-point performance in an 82-80 win over the Turks.

The two teams faced off in the Semi-Finals of the 2015 FIBA U16 European Championship - with Lithuania winning 73-71 to reach the Final.

Lithuania head coach Gediminas Petrauskas called winning both warm-up games "fantastic" but put things in perspective.

"This is only preparation. Some things are improving although there are still some things that need to be fine-tuned," he said, making mention of defense and transition offense as areas to improve on. 

Lithuania struggled early in the first game played on Wednesday, falling behind 22-7 after 10 minutes. The Baltic side worked its way back into the game and led most of the fourth quarter and won by five points.

Lukas Uleckas led the team with 12 points while Sargiunas scored 11 points and Tomas Balciunas chipped in with 5 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. 

Ragip Berke Atar paced Turkey with 20 points, 11 rebounds, 3 blocks and 2 steals, and Erkin Senel had 16 points, 5 rebounds and 5 steals. 

Turkish star Onuralp Bitim struggled with just 2 points, hitting just 1-of-7 shots with 3 turnovers while center Ahmet Can Duran did not play.

In the second game played on Thursday, Lithuania were on fire from long range, hitting 14-of-25 three-pointers (56 percent) in an 82-80 victory. Sargiunas nailed seven three-pointers to help Lithuania bounce back with their outside shooting after making 6-of-24 three-pointers in the first game.

Unlike Turkish coach Fatih Elbas, Petrauskas is yet to set his final 12-man roster and the coach made two changes to his team for the second warm-up. 

One of the players coming in was Vitalijus Kozys, who started and hit three three-pointers in scoring 15 points while captain Tadas Vaiciunas chipped in 11 points. 

Lithuanian leader Arnas Velicka struggled at times in both games - collecting 7 points, 5 rebounds, 4 steals, 2 assists and 9 turnovers in the first game and 2 points on 0-of-6 shooting, 5 assists, 2 steals and 4 turnovers in the second one.  

Ahmet Can Duran scored 34 points in a warm-up game against Lithuania.

Elbas kept Bitim out of the second game for Turkey and clearly wanted to try and get Duran going offensively. The center scored 34 points on 15-of-31 shots - the Turkish team took 69 total shots - while picking up 18 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 blocks and 6 turnovers. Senel had 12 points and 4 steals in the loss and Cagatay Afsar added 10 points. 

Turkey had a nightmare two games from long range, combining to hit just 4-of-30 three-pointers (13 percent). 

Lithuania will play against Argentina, Mali and hosts Spain in Group B in Zaragoza, while debutants Turkey are drawn into Group A with Chinese Taipei, Egypt and United States.

FIBA