Their win in opposition to the United States might had been Lithuania’s largest accomplishment within the 2023 FIBA World Cup, however it’s all up to now now because the European crew acquired knocked out by a mighty Serbia squad within the quarterfinals.
Lithuania fell to Serbia, 87-68, on Tuesday and misplaced its likelihood to win the highest prize within the ongoing World Cup.
“For sure it was a big win, but we knew that we came here to win the medal,” Lithuania’s Tadas Sedekerskis stated in a press convention.
“We set our goal out there on the first day of our camp, we want the medal. Nobody were rating us to play that good so our goal was to win the medal and we knew that if you want to win that, we have to beat Serbia in the quarterfinals today to go to the semifinals,” he added.
Sedekerskis stated the win in opposition to the United States is now simply a part of historical past.
“The game against the United States, as you can see, now it’s nothing. It’s just history. Now we don’t have any chances to fight for the medal so we knew that,” he stated.
Lithuania’s Tadas Sedekerskis talks about ‘forgetting’ the win in opposition to USA earlier than their match in opposition to Serbia #FIBAWC @gmasportsph @gmanews pic.twitter.com/Uvk9V2e0Tk
— JK Carandang (@jk_carandang) September 5, 2023
“We didn’t think we’ll be good or something because we won against the United States. The Serbian team is an amazing team and they know how to play basketball. They have great players like Bogdanovic so it was easy to forget. Maybe for the fans no but for the players, I can guarantee you 100% we [have] forget[ten] that.”
Lithuania coach Kazys Maksvytis stated lack of restoration time was an element of their loss.
“The toughest team won today. From our side, lack of energy and lack of emotions cost us,” he stated.
“They looked more aggressive, they played better defense. We couldn’t get our rhythm. The result says it all, we lost by 20 points. They just crushed us,” echoed Sedekerskis.
Lithuania will nonetheless play within the classification spherical in opposition to the loser of the Canada-Slovenia match on Thursday.
—JMB, GMA Integrated News
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
