ISTANBUL (2010 FIBA World Championship) - Slovenia captain Jaka Lakovic came to the rescue and fired his side to a vital Group B win over Brazil at the Abdi Ipekci on Wednesday night.

With Brazil having shaved a 17-point fourth-quarter deficit to 70-68 Lakovic, who visited with FIBATV.Com after the win, buried back-to-back three-pointers that helped the Slovenians keep their noses in front and record an 80-77 triumph.

Slovenia seemed to have taken command with a 14-0 run in the second quarter that put them on top, 34-18.

The Brazilians, who nearly upset the United States on Monday before falling by two, refused to go quietly.

They mounted the comeback with starters Marcelo Huertas and Alex Garcia on the bench.

Instead it was super sub Marcelo Machado, along with Nezinho, whose defense at the top of a two-three zone and scoring allowed the Brazilians to get back into the game.

It was a thrilling fourth quarter because Slovenia’s lead was 70-53 with 9:25 to go when they lost their way.

Two straight three-pointers by Marcelo Machado and a Leandro Barbosa fastbreak layup after a Machado steal cut the deficit to 70-61.

Machado next came up with a steal and raced down the floor for another lay-up and then buried a three-pointer to cut the deficit to 70-66.

The three-ball gave Machado 14 points.

Tiago Splitter (19 points) added a basket down low with 4:20 remaining to cap the 15-0 Brazil run.

The big center that was the Spanish ACB's best player in 2009-10 had a chance to level the game the next time down the floor but missed and Lakovic shortly after knocked down the first of his two three-pointers for a 73-68 advantage.

Lakovic nailed his second three-ball with 2:32 remaining for a 76-68 lead.

Brazil still weren't done and kept the pressure on but Lakovic again beat them.

Clinging to a 76-71 lead in the final minute, Lakovic dribbled into the lane and as the Brazilians converged, he passed to Bostjan Nachbar in the right corner and the veteran made his second three-pointer of the night to ice the victory.

Lakovic finished with 20 points, including six shots from long range, while Primoz Brezec had 16 and Nachbar 15.

Machado ended up with a team-high 20 points for Brazil.

Brazil got a lift from Anderson Varejao, who missed the opening three games with an ankle problem but played 23 minutes and had four points and four rebounds while contributing tough defense in his team’s comeback.

You can see the complete game highlights and an interview with Mantas Kalnietis on FIBATV.Com.

Slovenia’s Jaka Lakovic: “We lost our concentration in the fourth quarter. We started defending our lead and stopped attacking. We lost so many balls to give them an opportunity to come back and made a difficult game for ourselves. Brazil came back but in the end, we kept our heads together, went back to the defense and I think we deserved to win the game tonight. About the three-pointers, I just took a decision, took responsibility and they went in."  

Brazil’s Anderson Varejao: “We came back from a 17-point deficit but were unable to get the win. Tomorrow is another day and we have to forget about this defeat. It’s just like it is in the NBA. It’s great to be back playing again for the first time in the tournament.

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IZMIR (FIBA World Championship) - Spain have finally secured passage to the Eight Finals in Istanbul with a comprehensive 91-57 victory over Lebanon. They now face Canada in their final pool game.
 
Marc Gasol was dominant for Spain with 25 points and 8 rebounds. While for the Asian wildcards, centre Jackson Vroman was excellent with 22 points and 9 rebounds.
 
Lebanon threatened an upset early on, storming back from 13-6 down behind 12 points and six rebounds – four offensive – in the first term from centre Jackson Vroman to set up a 22-21 lead at quarter time.
 
Any hope Lebanon had though were dashed when, with scores level, Vroman was called for a controversial foul with 4:56 remaining in the second quarter, and then technical fouled for a brief reaction.
 
It was Vroman’s fourth foul, forcing him out of the game, and from there Spain peeled off a 13-2 run to take a 43-32 lead at the main break, with Gasol scoring six points in Vroman’s absence.
 
Spain burst out of the blocks in the third quarter, and while a big El Khatib triple would close the margin to 10, Jorge Garbajosa and Gasol answered immediately and then Spain put on an open court show, the margin reaching 72-47 by three quarter time and 34 by the end of the game.

You can watch complete highlights of the game and an interview with Jorge Garbajosa (7 points) on FIBATV.Com. 

Quotes:

Tad Baldwin : This match was very important to regain our confidence and self-respect. But Spain is one of the most powerful teams in the world. We played to win and showed it in first period. But we could not match Spain’s speed and ability. All of my players did their best. I am happy about our performance.

Ali Fakhreddine: Firstly, it was a difficult game for us. Spain is a big team. I think because of this we were always under pressure. Actually we were good, we did our best.

This match was a very good experience for us, we will learn some lessons from it and we will work harder in the future. Tomorrow, in the Lithuania match, we will do our best, and even we cannot win the game, we will try our best.

Sergio Scariolo: We were pretty good today. We had two ideas before the game, get them in foul trouble and play inside. And especially, we wanted to stop El-Khatib. We did these things and because of this we won.

Felipe Reyes: Today game was important to us. We were coming to this match with two losses and we have to win today as the defending world champion. The first half of game was hard for us and were nervous, but second half we got to enjoy the game. We started to get our offense working better, but even though we won this game, we made some mistakes that we do want to repeat again.

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Paulo Kennedy

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