LITHUANIA shattered China’s hope of making history on home soil by winning 94-68 in a quarterfinal match of the men’s basketball competitions at the Beijing Olympics yesterday.
Lithuania will meet Spain, which beat Croatia 72-59 in a previous match, in the semifinals.
China repeated their eighth-place finish at the 2004 Athens Olympics, but failed to live up to the vow to make a breakthrough in Beijing.
Sarunas Jasikevicius shot 5 of 6 from behind the arc to lead Lithuania, which was 13 of 31 on 3-pointers, with 23 points and six assists.
Ramunas Siskauskas had three three-pointers and Linas Kleiza had two to collect 15 points each. Lithuania defeated China 95-75 in the quarter-finals at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Yao Ming led China with 19 points and seven rebounds with Yi Jianlian adding 11 points and nine rebounds, which were 4 of 21 on 3-pointers, the worst in their six matches of the tournament.
“I had a different Olympic trip this time compared to the 2004 Athens. To finish eighth here is much more difficult than that of four years ago. We enjoyed the Beijing Olympics and played many exciting matches. It’s really a pity we didn’t have a better result here,” Yao said.
The Houston Rockets’ center began his national career in 1997 with the best results two eighth places at Olympics.
“I wished courage could have carried us to the next round, to make a record in the history of Chinese basketball, but I failed. Lithuania did a great job of defence on me. They also shut down our offence from the outside shooters,” he said.
Yao was not sure whether he would compete at the 2012 London Olympics as the 28-year-old center had undergone three surgical operations in the past four years.
Lithuania capitalized with 12 steals with 16 fast-break points, compared to China’s zero. The Lithuanians concluded every quarter with a 3-pointer when China failed to shut down their sharp shooters.
“We defended Yao well. We knew it would be too hard to defend him one on one, so we doubled him as much as we could, and that was the key to our victory,” Lithuania’s head coach Ramunas Butautas said.
Lithuanian Jonas Kazlauskas was the former national coach of Lithuania during 1997-2001 before he was appointed assistant coach of China in 2004. He took over as China’s head coach in April 2005.
Lithuania will face Spain while the United States will face the winner of a match between Argentina and Greece after the U.S. team demolished Australia 116-85 yesterday.
(SD-Xinhua)