National teams all around Europe continue their preparations for EuroBasket 2011. The hosts of this year’s tournament traveled to Moscow to face EuroBasket 2007 champions Russia.

David Blatt’s side started the game in high pace in both ends of the court which caused troubles for Lithuanians to score. Russia only allowed two points to be scored in their basket in almost five minutes of play in the first quarter.

Timofey Mozgov and Andrei Kirilenko were almost unstoppable as continually broke the defence of their opponents. One of the team’s leaders Viktor Khryapa didn’t play.

However, things got slightly better for the visitors once Jonas Valanciunas and Sarunas Jasikevicius entered the court. Valanciunas was once again one of the top performers for his team making an even stronger claim for a spot in the final squad.

Russia didn’t lower the pace later in the game which helped them to build a comfortable lead. EuroBasket 2007 champs were up by as many as 21 points in the fourth quarter leaving no doubt about who will take the win. Even though the gap was slightly narrowed in the end Russia won comfortably 91-76.

Neither team was having a good night shooting from beyond the arc – Russia 6/16, Lithuania – 4/16. Lithuanians, however, despite playing their third warm-up game continue to struggle with three-pointers. In addition to that, eight players on Lithuanian squad finished with a negative index rating, The most notable being Paulius Jankunas (-23).

Today Lithuanian national team flies directly to Spain to continue their preparations and will face current European champions in Madrid this weekend.

91 – Russia – (23+26+21+21) – Timofey Mozgov 18, Andrei Kirilenko 17 (7 rebounds), Vitaly Fridzon 14, Anton Ponkrashov 12, Sergey Monia 8, Semen Antonov 8, Sergey Bykov 6, Dmitry Khvostov 3, Evgeny Voronov 3, Nikita Shabalin 2.

76 – Lithuania – (14+22+17+23) – Paulius Jankuns 15, Jonas Valanciunas 14 (7 rebounds), Darius Songaila 12, Simas Jasaitis 11, Martynas Pocius 7, Darjus Lavrinovic 7, Rimantas Kaukenas 4, Sarunas Jasikevicius 3, Tomas Delininkaitis 2, Robertas Javtokas 1.

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