By Rigas Dardalis/ dardalis@eurohoops.net
Ukraine (2-3) and Lithuania (4-1) knew before the tip off that both will be among the top eight teams of Eurobasket 2013. However, Lithuania had bigger motive got the win and finally got it (70-63). With a 4-1 record the players of coach Kazlauskas can finish on top of group E and play against the fourth team of Group F standings, in theory at least the easiest opponents they can get in order to get to the medal round.
The game was close for the most part, there was no double digits leads for either team and Linas Kleiza (15 p.) made the biggest bucket of the game, when he gave with a three pointer a 4 point cushion to Lithuania (67-63) with one minute left.
“Some were saying that Ukraine were not strong enough, are not playing interesting basketball but as we can see some teams that were not strong enough some years ago have now improved a lot and one of those teams is Ukraine. They are playing really good basketball and were able to beat a team like Serbia. So big respect to Ukraine who made it a really tough game for us,” said Lithuania coach Jonas Kazlauskas.