France falls in 2nd round Eurobasket opener to Lithuania

0

After finishing the first round of the 2013 FIBA Eurobasket as the top team in Group A, the French National team resumed their participation in the competition with a match against Lithuania on Wednesday.

From the get-go, it was Lithuania's defense that was story of the game as they held the French national team spotlight players to lower numbers than they had been scoring thus far in the competition. After the first quarter, Lithuania held France to just 10 points. The trend would continue as Lithuania outscored France 25-20 to defeat France 76-62.

San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker, who was coming into Wednesday as the third leading scorer of the first round, scored just 11 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 turnover in 30 minutes of play. France's leading scorer was Spurs guard Nando De Colo with 12 points. Spurs forward Boris Diaw scored 7 points, assisted on 6 assists, and grabbed 4 rebounds in his 32 minutes.

Here are a few highlights from France's opening loss of the second round to Lithuania.

With the loss, France begins the second round in third place with 5 group points in Group E behind Serbia (6 points) and Lithuania (5 points). France will face Latvia on Friday as the second round continues.