Argentina suffered their first lose in their third game of the Stankovic Continental Champions Cup in Beijing on Friday.

In the first quarter, Lithuanian hit two free throws and took the lead. The Lithuanians posed aggressive defense and their accurate shooting from both inside and outside the arc made Argentina scoreless in the first 7 minutes. Lithuania ended the first quarter at 24-10.

In the second quarter, Argentina started to reduce the gap by using man-to-man defense and gradually found their rhythm of offense and cut the deficit within 10 points.

Argentina made up for 50% shooting from the field and ended the first half 37-45. The Lithuanians shot 57% from the field in the first half.

In the second half, the Lithuanians changed to a man-to-man defense while the Argentineans adopted 3-2 zone defense. Argentina used their 3-pointers to cut the deficit to 3 when there was 2:41 left in the third quarter, Lithuanian called a timeout. Argentina finally led the third quarter 55-54.

The last quarter witnessed Lithuanian tying the score when 8:55 was left. Lithuanian became more aggressive and 3 of their players fouled out in this period. They led by 7 with 1:48 remaining. Argentina cut the deficit to 1 when there was 0:52 left and made a quick foul. Lithuanian hit two free throws to lead by 3.

Argentina made the ensuing free throws to make the game 77-78, but after that Lithuanian made 5 straight points and finally won the game 83-77.

(China.org.cn by staff reporter Li Xiao, July 29, 2005)