Lithuania wins, earns knockout stage berth at EuroBasket

COLOGNE, Germany (AP) — Lithuania is going to the knockout stage of EuroBasket.

Marius Grigonis scored 16 points, Jonas Valanciunas finished with 13 points and 15 rebounds, and Lithuania topped Bosnia and Herzegovina 87-70 on Wednesday, a winner-take-all game in terms of which club would move onto the round of 16 at the European championships.

Arnas Butkevicius and Ignas Brazdeikis each scored 13 points, and Domantas Sabonis added 12 for Lithuania, which survived a second consecutive must-win game.

Dzanan Musa led all scorers with 22 points for Bosnia and Herzegovina (2-3), while Jusuf Nurkic added 15.

A 30-10 run spanning the second and third quarters was the key for Lithuania (2-3). The game was tied at 32 before the spurt gave Lithuania a 62-42 lead early in the third quarter.

Lithuania’s win settled one of the three knockout-phase spots that would be decided Wednesday. The others are later in the day, with Montenegro, Belgium, Bulgaria and Georgia vying for the two remaining spots left out of Group A.

There are four groups with six teams in each, and the top four clubs in each group — 16 teams in all — move on to Berlin for the knockout phase that starts Saturday.

GROUP A

SPAIN 72, TURKEY 69

At Tbilisi, Georgia, Lorenzo Brown’s jumper with 2:11 left put Spain (4-1) ahead to stay in its group-clinching win over Turkey (3-2).

Willy Hernangomez led Spain with 15 points, and Brown finished with 11. Spain will meet Lithuania in the round of 16 this weekend.

Cedi Osman scored 20 for Turkey, while Furkan Korkmaz finished with 16 Alperen Sengun added 14. Turkey will play in the knockout round as well.

THURSDAY’S SCHEDULE

First-round play ends in Groups C and D, as the 60-game group stage comes to an end.

Group C: Croatia (2-2) vs. Ukraine (3-1), Estonia (1-3) vs. Greece (4-0), Britain (0-4) vs. Italy (2-2). Croatia, Ukraine, Greece and Italy are all advancing to Berlin and the knockout stage. Greece could be one of two teams — Serbia is the other — to have a chance to get through group play unbeaten.

Group D: Israel (2-2) vs. Czech Republic (1-3), Serbia (4-0) vs. Poland (3-1), Finland (2-2) vs. Netherlands (0-4). The Israel-Czech Republic winner goes to Berlin, the Serbia-Poland winner will win the group (both have already clinched knockout round spots), and Finland is also locked into the knockout round.

There are no games Friday.

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