Lithuania wins bronze at worlds

• Recommend0
• Tweet0
• Comments0
• Email
• Print

Linas Kleiza scored 33 points to help Lithuania win its first world basketball championship medal with a 99-88 victory over Serbia on Sunday in the third-place game.

Kleiza, who plays for the Toronto Raptors, scored 12 points during a 22-12 run -- including 15 consecutive points -- that put Lithuania 48-38 ahead heading to halftime.

Novica Velickovic scored 18 points for Serbia, which lost an emotionally-draining 83-82 semifinal to host nation Turkey the night before.

Kleiza scored 17 points in the first half as he bounced back from a miserable game Saturday in which he missed 10 of 11 field goal attempts in an 89-74 semifinal loss to the United States.

The burly forward made 12 of 18 field goal attempts in this one, including five of seven 3-pointers.

Argentina 86, Spain 81

Luis Scola made the tiebreaking basket with 1:38 left, and Argentina blew a 25-point lead before beating Spain 86-81 on Sunday for fifth place in the world championship.

Carlos Delfino scored 27 points and Scola added 22 points and 11 rebounds for the Argentines, who led 49-32 at halftime and seemed to be cruising to victory before a huge rally by Spain, the 2006 world champion.

Marc Gasol's free throw tied it at 80 with 2:11 remaining before Scola put Argentina back on top with a bucket in the lane.

Gasol made another free throw before Pablo Prigioni hit a clinching 3-pointer to make it 85-81 with 15 seconds to play.

Both teams were among the world's best over the last decade, but played without their biggest stars -- Manu Ginobili for Argentina, Pau Gasol for Spain -- and will have to qualify next summer for the 2012 Olympics. Argentina will host the FIBA Americas tournament.

Rudy Fernandez scored 31 points and Marc Gasol had 16 points and 10 boards for Spain.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

• Recommend0
• Tweet0
• Comments0
• Email
• Print
• Subscribe