Lithuanian national team has started its preparation for the Olympic qualifying tournament with a win over Dominican Republic. The national team defeated its opponents with the result of 95:62 (28:20, 22:21, 23: 9, 22: 9) led by Jonas Valančiūnas.
Lithuanians were on fire and shot 31/39 from 2-point range (79 percent). In the second half of the game, the Lithuanians allowed its opponents to score only 18 points. From the very beginning of the game, the Lithuanians dominated the paint – Jonas Valančiūnas and Domantas Sabonis were hard to stop inside the painted area and helped the team to create a double-digit lead in the first quarter – 26:16.
However, the opponents did not give up easily and at the beginning of the second quarter had a 10:0 run and cut the Lithuanian double-digit lead – 26:28.
Towards the end of the half, Jonas Valančiūnas scored two points with a foul and once again gave Lithuanians a double-digit advantage – 42:32. Numerous turnovers prevented Lithuanians from increasing their lead even more. In the first half, team had a total of 8 turnovers. After the half time game took a twist and after a 7 straight points by Marius Grigonis lead has increased to 18 points.
Lithuanians have won the 3rd quarter with the result of 23:9. The fourth quarter was highlighted with several monster jams from Jonas Valančiūnas and Lithuania easily sealed the win. The center of the Memphis Grizzlies was impossible to stop by the opponents from Dominican Republic – in 15 minutes he scored 17 points (8/9 2pt, 0/1 3pt), and had 6 rebounds. Marius Grigonis added 13 points, Lukas Lekavičius 11. Domantas Sabonis scored 9 points with 6 rebounds and 4 assists.
All 12 registered players have appeared on the court, while Mantas Kalnietis and Gytis Masiulis were sidelined to treat their minor injuries.
These teams will face-off again on June 24th. Next game Lithuanian national team will play on the 22nd of June against Russian national team.
