Published: 8 September, 2009, 12:07
Edited: 8 September, 2009, 08:45
Former American and now naturalized-Russian Kelly McCarty scored 24 points to lead defending champs Russia to an 81-68 win over Latvia in their opening game at EuroBasket 2009 in Poland.
Only three players from David Blatt’s squad that triumphed in Spain two years ago are present in the current team, with biggest stars Andrey Kirilenko and J.R. Holden absent.
But Russia took off to a good start against Latvia, winning the first quarter 28-21, thanks to three shots from the arc by Sergey Bykov.
But the Baltic team stood firm in the second and third quarters, managing to reduce Russia’s lead to just two points with four minutes remaining.
And that’s when McCarty took the stage, with the player, who recieved Russian citizenship just before EuroBasket, getting five points in two attacks. The Latvian team couldn’t survive the shock and David Blatt’s men dominated the rest of the game to claim an 81-68 win.
McCarty wasn’t the only hero in the Russian team, with Sergey Bykov shooting 22 points and Timofey Mozgov adding another 10 points
The great team play from the defending champions didn’t let Latvian NBA star center Andris Biedrins shine on the night, as he got to just six points.
"Our goal was to keep them under 70 points. I was surprised we scored over 80. We haven't scored over 80 the whole summer. The power of many is a lot more than the strength of a few. And I think we showed the power of many today," David Blatt, Russia’s coach, said to EuroBasket official website.
Russia’s next encounter is scheduled for Tuesday. They play Group B rivals Germany, who were beaten by France 70-65 in the opening game.
Serbia took the better of reigning world champions Spain 66-57 in the match of the day. Also in group C, Great Britain didn’t look that great against Slovenia, going down 72-59.
In Group A, Greece left no chance to Macedonia 86-54 and Croatia topped Israel 86-79.
Bulgaria beat Poland 90-78 in the first game of Group D, and Turkey got the better of Lithuania 84-76.