Lithuania comes from behind to stop Serbia in U18 EC Semi

Lithuania found themselves down by eight with 4:52 in their U18 European Championship semifinals contest with Serbia, only to mount an impressive comeback that ended with a game-winning jumper by Marius Grigonis to go ahead by two with five seconds to play.

The host Lithuanians held a one point advantage at the start of the fourth quarter 52-51, but Serbia went on an 8-0 run early in the final frame to build a 62-54 margin. Surprisingly, Serbian coach Dejan Mijatovic called a time-out, and Lithuania came out with a new sense of urgency, chipping away the the Serbs lead. Mounting an 11-2 run of their own, Lithuania regained the lead with 1:37 to play at 65-64. Serbia’s Mihajlo Andric dropped in a three-pointer to get the lead back, 67-65, with 1:15 to play and then big man Augustinas Jankaitis tied things up at 67 with a jumper of his own with 49 seconds remaining. Serbia called a time-out to set something up, but ended up missing their shot, Jankaitis grabbed the defensive rebound setting the hosts up to work the ball for a final shot. Grigonis found an opening, drove the lane and dropped in a floater with just until six ticks to play, giving Lithuania the two-point advantage. Serbia pushed the ball up and got a good look, but Doko Salic’s jump shot sailed wide, sending Lithuania to the Championship game to be played Sun., Aug. 19th against the winner of the Russia-Croatia contest. Simas Raupys lead all scorers with 17 points, Jankaitis added 14 and Andric contributed 10 to the winning effort. Luka Andusic put in 17 for Serbia, Nikola Jankovic added 17 points and 13 rebounds, and Stefan Pot scored 11.