Lithuania drawns in sorrow: F.Y.R. of Macedonia was stronger

AP/Scanpix nuotr.

Tonight the helder of Eurobasket 2011 - Lithuania - has fallen: 65:67 (20:18, 14:12, 18:19, 13:18) was the result after the final whistle, and Macedonian fans kept clapping for a long time. This was the third loss for Lithuania in the championship, while F.Y.R of Macedonia has lost only two times and now is going into the semi-finals, where they are meeting Spanish national basketball team.

Lithuania is playing against Slovenia on Thursday, 15:30 (GMT +3), and the winning team goes forward with a chance to take the 5th place in the championship and to get an opportunity to participate in a special tournament made for the invitations to the Olympics of 2012.

For example, Lithuania stands 5th in the FIBA rating while F.Y.R of Macedonia is only in the 47th place.

The match was very intense, both teams were nervous and tried their best, but today Macedonian team had more energy, motivation and more will to win.

Lithuania: Robertas Javtokas (6 reb.) - 13 points, Darius Songaila - 12, Mantas Kalnietis (9 reb., 4 ass.) - 9, Šarūnas Jasikevičius (5 reb., 5 ass.) - 7, Rimantas Kaukėnas - 6, Paulius Jankūnas - 4, Jonas Valančiūnas (6 reb.) - 3, Martynas Pocius - 2, Kšyštofas Lavrinovičius - 0 and Tomas Delininkaitis didn't play. 

F.Y.R. of Macedonia: Bo McCalebb - 23 points, Vojdan Stojanovski - 15 (5/5 three-point shots), Vlado Ilievski - 12, Pero Antič (8 reb.) - 9, Predrag Samardžiski (10 reb.) - 7, Giorgij Čekovski - 2, Darko Sokolov - 0, Dimitar Mirakovski, Damjan Stojanovski, Marko Simonovski and Ivica Dimčevski did not play.