September 8 ------ LITHUANIA dealt Luka Doncic another loss in Manila, beating Slovenia, 100-84, in the classification round of the 2023 Fiba Basketball World Cup at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Jonas Valanciunas had 24 points and 12 rebounds to lift Lietuva to the fifth-place game where they will go up against fellow Baltic country Latvia on Saturday. Playing back-to-back nights after losing to Canada in the quarterfinals, Doncic had 29 points but it was still not enough as Slovenia was relegated to the seventh-place match against Italy on Saturday.
Lietuva went on a 33-21 lead in the first quarter and never looked back even after Slovenia was able to cut the deficit to four, 57-53. Ignas Brazdeikis added 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field, and Mindaugas Kuzminskas had 14 points. Vaidas Kariniauskas was scoreless but dished out 10 assists for Lithuania.
Source: spin.ph
Editor's Note:
LATVIA advanced to the fifth-place game with an 87-82 win over Italy. Andrejs Grazulis had 28 points and six rebounds, Aigars Skele finished with 12 points, while Arturs Zagars had 10 points and six assists for Latvia, which will face either Lithuania or Slovenia in the playoff for fifth place. Luigi Datome had 20 points as Italy sat Utah Jazz cager Simone Fontecchio.
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