Lithuania protests double-OT loss to Germany at EuroBasket

COLOGNE, Germany (AP) — Lithuania protested its double-overtime loss to Germany at the EuroBasket tournament on Sunday, arguing that referees did not award it a free throw following a technical foul in regulation.

It was not immediately clear how, or if, FIBA would respond to the protest.

For now, it’s a German win — and a huge one for the hosts. Franz Wagner scored 32 points, Dennis Schroder added 25 and Germany held off Lithuania 109-107 in a game that was tight throughout, with neither team ever leading by more than nine points.

“We are not happy,” Lithuania coach Kazys Maksvytis said.

According to FIBA, Germany coach Gordie Herbert was called for a technical with 1:26 left in the third quarter, after a personal foul was whistled against his team. Jonas Valanciunas shot two free throws for Lithuania for the personal foul, but no free throw for the technical was awarded.

Herbert said he was told by one of the referees with 7 seconds left in regulation that there was “a situation” regarding the technical and what should have happened.

“That was the first time I heard about it,” Herbert said.

Arnas Butkevicius’ 3-pointer from the left wing for Lithuania — the potential game-winner — bounced off the rim as the clock ran out in the second extra session.

Maodo Lo scored 21 points for Germany (3-0) and Daniel Theis added 11.

Valanciunas had game highs of 34 points and 14 rebounds for Lithuania (0-3), while Marius Grigonis scored 17, Domantas Sabonis finished with 13, Ignas Brazdekis scored 12 and Mindaugas Kuzminskas added 11.

Lithuania’s three losses have been by seven, four and two points.

“It was a tough game,” Valanciunas said. “They played well. I thought we responded for most of the time. … Congrats to them.”

Valanciunas scored the final four points of regulation as Lithuania rallied from down 89-85 in the final 42 seconds. Schroder missed a stepback jumper at the buzzer of the fourth, and Wagner missed one at the end of the first overtime.

But in the second OT, the Germans scored the first five points and never trailed. Valanciunas was subbed out with 2:29 left, Lo made a 3-pointer 17 seconds later for a 106-102 lead and Germany held on.

“To come out on top, after all of that, I think it’s definitely a sign of our character and togetherness as a team,” Lo said.

GROUP A

BELGIUM 83, SPAIN 73

At Tbilisi, Georgia, Manu Lecomte scored 20 points and Belgium ended the game on a 12-0 run to surprise Spain.

Pierre-Antoine Gillet scored 14 points for Belgium (2-1), which got 11 from Retin Obasohan and 10 from Ismael Bako.

Willy Hernangomez scored 18 for Spain (2-1), while Juancho Hernangomez and Lorenzo Brown each had 11.

MONTENEGRO 91, BULGARIA 81

Vladimir Mihailovic scored 23 points and Montenegro (2-1) ended the game on an 18-6 run to rally past Bulgaria (0-3).

Igor Drobnjak and Bojan Dubljevic each had 17 points for Montenegro, Nemanja Radovic added 16 and Kendrick Perry scored 12.

Aleksandar Vezenkov led all scorers with 26 for Bulgaria, which led 75-73 in the fourth before missing eight of its last 10 shots. Andrey Ivanov finished with 17 and Chavdar Kostov added 10 for Bulgaria, which tried 64 shots in the game — 40 of them from 3-point range.

MONDAY’S SCHEDULE

Group C and Group D return to the floor. Group A and Group B get a rest day.

In Group C, at Milan, Ukraine (2-0) will look to remain unbeaten when it faces host Italy (1-1). Also in Milan on Monday: Greece (2-0), which has won its two games by a combined eight points, takes on Great Britain (0-2) and Croatia (1-1) faces Estonia (0-2).

In Group D, at Prague, Serbia (2-0) plays Finland (1-1), Israel (2-0) takes on Poland (1-1) and the Czech Republic (0-2) meets the Netherlands (0-2).

All four groups are in action Tuesday, with 12 games on the schedule. Group play continues through Thursday and the round of 16 starts in Berlin on Saturday.

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