1 September:
Poland chanceless against Lithuania

Lithuania's Tomas Delininkaitis (R) blocks Poland's Piotr Pamula during the EuroBasket 2011 first-round group A qualification match.

TORONTO - Lithuania had an easier time on the second day of the FIBA EuroBasket competition and as a result, Jonas Valanciunas saw more action.

The hosts rallied from an early three-point deficit to hammer Poland 97-77.
Poland was overmatched, conceding 69% shooting to Lithuania, while being outrebounded 41-19.

A day after getting just four third-quarter minutes of action, going scoreless with a pair of rebounds in a closer than expected victory over Great Britain, Valanciunas, got three minutes in the first half and 15 in the final two quarters when the outcome was no longer in doubt.

The Raptors draft pick didn't look entirely comfortable, a couple of balls slipped through his hands, but he still managed seven points, a couple of rebounds and a block. On the negative side, he fouled out and had five turnovers. The ultra-competitive Valanciunas disagreed with some of the calls and glared at the referee for a long moment after fouling out.
Mantas Kalnietis led Lithuania with 19 points, six rebounds and six assists.
The team will get a huge test on Friday when it takes on Turkey, which is also 2-0 and has been getting excellent play out of Hedo Turkoglu and centres Enes Kanter and Omer Asik.
In the game of the day, Germany beat Italy 76-62 with a great fourth quarter. Chris Kaman went off for 17 points and 17 rebounds, Dirk Nowitzki added 21 points and 12 rebounds, while Andrea Bargnani led Italy with five rebounds, but shot just 2-for-9 for eight points; In other significant games, tournament favourite Spain beat Portugal 87-73 behind 20 points from Pau Gasol;  Tony Parker led France over Israel 85-68 with 21 points and eight assists: Turkey beat Great Britain 90-61 despite 10 points from Toronto's Kyle Johnson, Greece dropped Finland by 20, Russia defeated Georgia 65-58 and Macedonia upset Croatia 78-76.
Turkey-Lithuania and France-Germany will be Friday's heavyweight clashes.

Read the Toronto Sun article at: http://www.torontosun.com/2011/09/01/lithuania-big-v-blow-out-poland