For the first time since 1993 Russia is in the EuroBasket finals, and will get a shot to win the title for the first time since 1985, back when it was still known as the USSR.

Russia shocked favorites Lithuania on Saturday night in the Palacio de Deportes as David Blatt led a brilliant group who took control of the game from the tip and never trailed, but on top of it showed great character.

Lithuania, coming to this game unbeatable in EuroBasket 2007, chased after the Russian

		J.R. Holden had 18 points and six rebounds in Russia's improbable win.

side from the first moment.

They made a heroic comeback from minus 19 to a tied game, but Russia didn't blink for a second.

Andrei Kirilenko, in an amazing individual performance of 29 points and eight rebounds, carried his team to a big win, and didn't allow anybody to take this win from his team.

"It was a very physical game, but we played great defense," he said after the buzzer.

"Our goal coming to this EuroBakset was to reach the Olympics. We've done that and now we're aiming at the finals. If we play as we did tonight, nobody can count us out."

Ramunas Siskauskas was the only one who stepped up for Lithuania.

He scored 30 points, including five shots from long range, which cut into Russia's lead time after time, but couldn't secure the win alone.

Russia played 40 minutes of very aggressive defense and didn't allow any Lithuanian to get anywhere close to the rim without being hammered down.

The bad side was that with six minutes on the clock Russia had three big men in big foul trouble – Morgunov, Khryapa and Savrasenko had four fouls each, but eventually none fouled out.

The good side was Lithuania's front line was out of the game.

Darius Songaila, Darius Lavrinovic, Ksystof Lavrinovic, Linas Kleiza and Robertas Javtokas combined only 18 points and weren't factors for Lithuania.

Russia stopped Lithuania right from the start, and after six minutes one of the best

		Siskauskas tried to do it alone, leading all scorers with 30 points.

offensive teams in EuroBasket had only scored three points.

Russia took advantage of that to jump out to an 18-3 lead.

Siskauskas and Simas Jasaitis connected on some three-pointers to give Lithuania some life, trailing 20-11, but Russia took a 25-12 lead after ten minutes.

Blatt's side opened the second quarter with two hits from downtown by Victor Khryapa and another by Morgunov.

When Kirilenko added a tip-in, it was a 19 point game, 33-14, but it wasn't over yet.

Up by 17 Khryapa stole the ball at mid-court and was on his way to send a message with a big dunk.

He missed and Rimas Kaukenas nail a corner three pointer at the other end, setting the score at 33-19 and starting the comeback.

Saras returned off the bench to hit a three-pointer of his own with a minute to go in the first half and Russia's lead was narrowed to no more than six, but the action wasn't over yet.

Lithuania finished the half down by seven, 40-33, and three minutes inside the second half was all the way back in the game.

Saras hit a mid-range jumper and dished an assist for a three-pointer by Jasaitis who made it 45-42.

Russia hung on to the lead with every nail and muscle, but Lithuania's aggressive defense and great execution made it a new game.

Siskauskas hit five in a row to force Blatt to call a time-out, this time without the lead anymore, 52-52 with a little over four minutes to play in the third.

Big players step up in big moments, and that’s what Kirilenko was about to do.

Six points in a row followed by a big block on Linas Kleiza sent Russia on an eight point lead again, 60-52.

When Khryapa nailed his third three-pointer of the night and set the margin on 11 again, Lithuania was called on a challenge – to prove they have the character to come back again.

Squeezing their last drops of courage Lithuania answered immediately.

Siska hit two from the line, instantly stole the ball and finished with a big dunk and opened the last quarter with a three pointer to cap an individual 7-0 run and make it 65-61.

But tonight was Kirilenko's night, and in order to prove that he replied with a 7-0 run of his own and the gap was 11 again, with 7:48 to play in the semi-finals.

With less than a minute to go the celebrations on the Russian bench emerged as a team that nobody believed in back home is in the EuroBasket finals.

A group of underdogs on a mission.

Russia will take on Spain in the 2007 EuroBasket finals, while Lithuania will face Greece in the game for the bronze medal, which will also be a game for the second secured ticket to the 2008 Olympics.

Russia

Coach David Blatt: "Coach Butautas knows I have great respect for him and the Lithuania team. They played beautiful basketball. I said before the game that we were the underdogs. The coach put together a great group and reformed it into the winning team from four years ago."

"I didn't know what to expect. I thought they would be mentally and physically down after their tough loss. So we had to hit them early like a boxer. We knew they would come back because they're a great team. But we knew they would be out of energy and knew we would still have a lot. I'm so proud of my players, especially that we've changed our mentality of Russians being losers."

Forward Sergey Monya: "It's like my dream. If somebody told me before the tournament that Russia would take a medal I wouldn't believe them. We beat a good team, France, in the quarter-final and Lithuania in the semi-final. So it's a dream. We showed that Russia have good basketball players."

"For most of our players it's the first medal in international play. So tomorrow we have a very big opportunity to beat Spain. Tomorrow it's one chance in my life to play in the final of the European Championship. Everybody believes in our team; and I think we will show how we can play."

Lithuania

Coach Ramunas Butautas: "Respect for big, great team. Mr. Blatt did a great job. They played very nice, European basketball. The start of the game was terrible for us. Russia played faster and more clever. Our players played very slowly. In the middle of the game we had a chance and our players played tougher and stronger in defense but it was not enough to win."

"Of course we only had 20 hours after the tough game against Croatia. But Russia is a great team and they won."

Forward Darius Songalia: "They deserved to win. Obviously a little more rest for us would have been better. But it was hard to bounce back from such a deficit in the first quarter. That pretty much sums up the game."

Lithuania and Russia head into their semi-final showdown on the back of narrow wins, the former edging Croatia on Friday to remain unbeaten at the EuroBasket and the latter scraping their way past France to reach the last four for the first time in 10 years.

The Lithuanians, gold medalists in 2003 when the tournament was staged in Sweden, are

		Nikita Morgunov has been key to Russia's success.

undefeated but they will not be as rested as their opponents who played the French on Thursday.

“That’s okay,” said Lithuania power forward Darius Songaila. “They’ve had two days to worry about this game, while we have to just go out and play.”

Against Croatia, Songaila and Co. did not play at their best but still managed to win and that’s  the sign of a championship-calibre team.

However, Russia can also play much better than they did against France as well, and now that the pressure is off of reaching the semi-finals for the first time in 10 years, David Blatt’s team will be loose and confident.

Last result: Lithuania beat Croatia 74-72, Russia defeated France 75-71

Key Match-up: Victor Kryapa v Ramunas Siskauskas. Croatia coach Jasmin Repesa did his best to contain Siskauskas, and that helped his team stay in the game until the very end. If Kryapa, who has had a great EuroBasket, gets the assignment for Russia - and he may because of his quickness and size - Russia will have a better chance of springing the upset.

Key Stat: Free throw shooting has cost teams like France and Croatia dearly in their quarter-final defeats, but the Lithuanians were 22 of 26 (84.6%) in their win over Croatia.

X-Factor: Nikita Morgunov. Has there been a more important player for Russia than center Morgunov, who comes of the bench to provide scoring, rebounding and defense?

Speaking out: “Against Russia, it's going to be a tough game, no question. Then again, from now on it's going to be extremely tough. We are in the semi-finals of the European Championship. We have 24 hours to recover. We will see if I am able to play more than I did today. I hope so but we will have to wait and see how my leg responds." – Lithuania point guard Sarunas Jasikevicius.