Lithuania shot 49.2% from the field while making 11 of 22 3-pointers, went to the free throw line seven more times than Arizona did and out rebounded them 49-31, scoring 14 second-chance points on 18 offensive rebounds. Lithuania made 22 of 33 free throws while UA was 17 for 28.
“Their experience as basketball players showed and it’s a great learning experience for us,” Lloyd said. “I knew today was going to be a difficult game for us. It didn’t matter if it was the A team or the B team. I knew it was going to be tough and these players have a lot to prove.”
Krivas, who grew up playing within the Lithuanian federation and for the prestigious Zalgiris club, said he felt like the Wildcats knew what was coming… sort of .
“But all of the players didn’t know fully what was coming,” Krivas said. “We were playing against pros from the second, first (Lithuanian) leagues.”
The game attracted a standing-room-only crowd of over 2,000 inside the compact Jonava Sports Arena, located about a half-hour away from the Wildcats’ hotel in Kaunas. A few fans wore Arizona’s tye-dye red-and-blue shirts that the Wildcats wore for warmups but the crowd was overwhelmingly in favor of the locals, a collection of national team players of varying ages.
The spectators included former Wildcat standout Azuolas Tubelis, who is scheduled to face them on Saturday while playing for the Lithuanian senior national team in Alytus.
With uniforms featuring two navy stripes running down the side of their uniforms and their names under their numbers, the Wildcats trailed 54-37 at halftime and were down by up to 20 early in the third quarter. Arizona went on a 12-2 run to pull within 10 points but still trailed 75-61 at the end of the quarter. They cut it to 10 points again in the fourth quarter but came no closer.