Croatia shocks Spain, Lithuania holds off Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO — Spain’s bid for a third consecutive trip to the Olympic men’s basketball finals suffered a severe setback Sunday, while host Brazil took hope from a failed rally against Lithuania. Croatia upset second-ranked Spain 72-70 as Dario Saric blocked Pau Gasol’s game-tying attempt at the final buzzer and Lithuania held off Brazil 82-76 as Group B preliminary round play began. There was no rally in the other opener as Argentina ripped Nigeria 94-66 behind Facundo Campazzo’s game high of 19 points and five assists and Luis Scola’s 18 points and game-high eight rebounds. Croatia and Spain exchanged leads six times in the final minutes, the last time coming when Krunoslav Simon stole the ball from Sergio Rodriguez and made a layup to put Croatia ahead 69-67. Simon added two free throws to stretch the margin, Nikola Mirotic answered with a 3-pointer for Spain and Saric added a free throw to create the final margin. However, Saric’s most telling impact was still to come when the Philadelphia 76ers bound power forward blocked two-time NBA champion Gasol’s last-ditch effort. Gasol had 26 points and nine rebounds while Mirotic added 19 points for Spain. Bojan Bogdanovic led Croatia with 23 points. Saric had five points, seven rebounds and five assists. Five-time defending women’s champion the United States stretched its Olympic win streak to 42 games Sunday with its most lopsided Games victory ever, a 121-56 rout of Senegal. Diana Taurasi, Breanna Stewart and Sylvia Fowles each netted 15 points to lead seven double-figure scorers for the Americans. The 65-point victory margin surpassed the prior US mark from a 107-47 victory over the DR Congo set at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Next up for the Americans is Spain, whose best Olympic finish was fourth in 2008. The Spaniards opened by beating Serbia 65-59 as Marta Xargay had 15 points, Anna Cruz added 13 points and 11 rebounds and Astou Ndour contributed 11 points and 12 rebounds. In Group A, Australia outlasted Turkey 61-56 with Elizabeth Cambage scoring 22 points and grabbing 11 rebounds for the 2-0 Opals. Lara Sanders had 25 points in a losing cause.