【China Daily】China leaves basketball worlds after Lithuania loss leaves, loss, Daily, Lithuania, basketball

星期一

ISTANBUL - China ended the world basketball championships campaign in Turkey after losing 78-67 to the undefeated Lithuanian team here on Tuesday.

Lithuania will now take on Argentina, who beat Brazil 93-89, in the quarterfinal.

China started out Tuesday's game strong, ending the first quarter with a 22-17 lead.

The game remained close in the second quarter, with China maintaining its narrow lead until 5 minutes left, when Lithuania brought the score to 32-31.

The first half ended with a narrow Lithuanian lead of 43-40.

China equalized a couple times in the third quarter, bringing the score to 45-45 with eight minutes left, then 48-48 once again with seven minutes left, but was never able to get ahead again for the rest of the game.

Lithuania picked up significant momentum with 6 minutes left, ending the third quarter 64-51 ahead.

China would narrow the gap during the fourth quarter, even bring the score to 67-62 with 5 minutes left, but would eventually fall apart, ending the game 11 points behind the Baltic team.

Linas Kleiza was the top-scorer of the game, netting 30 points for Lithuania. Meanwhile, China's Liu Wei was top-scorer for his team with 21 points.