The German national basketball team clinched their third win in their third European Championship game - in an extremely tight game. Opponents Lithuania lodges a protest because a free throw was not granted. This is now rejected, the Lithuanians have to worry about progressing.
The German basketball players are allowed to keep their victory against Lithuania at the European Championship. The world association FIBA rejected a corresponding protest by the Lithuanians, as was announced a few hours after the game. The competent single judge considered this "inadmissible" because the reasoning had not been received within the set period of 60 minutes. The Lithuanians had lodged the protest because they were denied a free throw in the third quarter despite a technical foul by the German bench.
The possible missing point could have been decisive because the German 109:107 victory in Cologne was only certain after two overtimes. FIBA also stated that the protest would not have been successful even if the reason had been given in due time, "since the reason given is not one of the reasons for which a protest can be lodged".
After three wins from three games, Germany has already qualified for the final round in Berlin. Lithuania has lost all three games and has to worry about reaching the round of 16.
National coach Gordon Herbert admitted after the game that he only noticed the faux pas of the officials a few seconds before the end of the game. The one point the still-winless Lithuanians could have made from the free-throw in regular time could have been game-changing in the hard-fought thriller.
From a purely performance point of view, Franz Wagner became the key figure against Lithuania, who with his 32 points was reminiscent of the young Dirk Nowitzki. "I'm very proud of our players, it was a tough 50 minutes but we made it through somehow. I don't know if we could have made it 55 minutes," said Herbert. The 21-year-old match winner Wagner commented: "It was a lot of fun. The fans were really crazy. The game went up and down. Winning a game like that is unbelievable."
