Lithuania clinched its second straight trip to the FIBA World Cup semifinals, putting together an 8-0 run in the middle of the fourth quarter to pull away from Turkey for a 73-61 win at Barcelona on Tuesday.
Lithuania (6-1) led 47-44 entering the fourth period, but Turkey (4-3) kept hanging around until the Lithuanians scored eight unanswered points to go up by 13 with 3:15 to play.
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Kerem Gonlum made the first of two free throws to cut the Turks’ deficit to 56-51 with 6:24 remaining and had a chance to get it to a one-possession game after a turnover by Lithuania, but Emir Preldzic—the hero of Turkey’s round of 16 win over Australia—missed a 3-pointer and Jonas Valanciunas was fouled on the other end.
Valanciunas, the Toronto Raptors’ center, hit both free throws. Turkey got two chances on its next possession, but misfired on both, and Lithuania extended the lead again on back-to-back jumpers by Jonas Maciulis.
Darjus Lavrinovic capped the spurt with a jumper at the 3:15 mark that put Lithuania comfortably ahead 64-51.
The Turks closed to within eight on a layup by Cedi Osman with 1:15 to go, but got no closer.
Renaldas Seibutis hit all three of his 3-point attempts and led Lithuania with 19 points. Martynas Pocius added 13 points, Valanciunas finished with 12 points and 13 rebounds and Darjus Lavrinovic chipped in with 11 points. Darjus’ twin brother Ksystof Lavrinovic blocked two shots, but did not score.
Lithuania was helped by its long-range shooting, as it was 10-for-19 from 3-point range.
Gonlum led the Turks with 13 points and also had nine rebounds. Ender Arslan added 12 points, Omer Asik of the New Orleans Pelicans went for 11 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks and Preldzic scored 10 points to go with five assists and three steals, but was just 3-for-12 from the floor.
Lithuania advances to the semifinals on Thursday in Barcelona against the winner of the Slovenia-USA quarterfinal being played Tuesday night in Spain.
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