Wizards forward Darius Songaila and his fellow Lithuanian teammates are all smiles as they won Sunday’s bronze medal game of EuroBasket 2007 against Greece, 78-69, and also earned a trip to the Olympic games in 2008.

STATS: Songaila played in all nine games in the European Tournament and averaged 11.2 points and 4.8 rebounds in 19.6 minutes per game. He made 36 of 70 (51.4%) two-point field goals, 4 of 14 from behind the international three-point line, and made 81% of free throws.

Songaila also posted a blog entry on NBA.com, explaining many reasons he played in this tournament, why it is important for his Lithuania national team to be able to qualify for the Olympics, and much more…

Songaila On The Importance of Playing in EuroBasket:

“I didn’t get to play a lot last year with Washington because of the injuries so one part is it is good for me to play a good level of basketball, get ready for the season and get in shape. I don’t think you can get a better level of competition during the summer than we’ve got right now. Secondly, it is national pride. I am from Lithuania and we are one of the smallest countries in the world… Basketball is the No. 1 sport in the country and that pride, you want to come back and play for your own country and wear those colors.”

Wizards forward Darius Songaila scored 20 points, grabbed seven rebounds and gave Lithuania the winning basket with 46 seconds left against Croatia, 74-72. Lithuania will meet Russia in the semi-final game on Saturday.

Turning point: Lithuania led 74-70 when Darius Songalia was called for an unsportsmanlike foul with 27 seconds left. Zoran Planinic made both free throws for Croatia and was then fouled again with 1.04 seconds remaining. But Planinic missed both foul shots and Lithuania ran out the clock for a 74-72 victory to advance to a semi-final showdown with Russia.

Key match-up to watch in the semis: Songaila vs. Andrei Kirilenko.

Stats: Over the last three games (vs. France, Slovenia, and Croatia), Songaila has stepped up his game and averaged 18 points and six rebounds in 22 minutes per game. He made 22 out of 34 field goal attempts (64.7%) and 8 of 9 from the free throw line during the tougher international competition.

Will Songaila’s superb tournament performance transform into more minutes for the upcoming Wizards season? What kind of roles will he play when head coach Eddie Jordan and his staff incorporate his game into the system at the training camp? Will Songaila’s experience give him the edge as Jamison’s primary back up at the power forward spot or share some minutes at center position when the Wizards play a smaller lineup?

In his best game so far in EuroBasket 2007, Wizards forward Darius Songaila scored 17 points on seven of 10 shooting and led Lithuania with seven rebounds in a crucial victory against France, 88-73, Monday evening in Madrid, Spain. Lithuania, already qualified to the quarter finals, stay unbeaten (4-0 vs. qualifying teams; 5-0 overall) and remain top in Group F of the tournament.

Touted as a “must see” match-up between the best two point guards in the European tournament Tony Parker (11 pts, 6 ast) and Sarunas Jasikevicius (14 pts, 7 ast), it was Songaila who got the job done by beating out the undersized forwards Boris Diaw and Florent Pietrus (older brother of Mickael), not to mention that the energetic Ronny Turiaf had trouble guarding him and eventually fouled out of the game in just nine minutes of play.

Songaila started the game by scoring the first four points on two jumpers and then was superb on his inside game by making several layups and getting rebounds (game-high six defensive rebounds).

Forward Darius Songaila: “France moved to a small line up and it took us some minutes to figure out how to play against that. By then they were back in the game, but we took off quick and won another game.”

Here is his stats line:

If you are not a baseball fan, don’t watch any football, and don’t care about the WNBA Finals (Game 1 between Detroit and Phoenix was the highest scoring game ever in finals history), there’s something else to cheer for at this moment for a fan like you who love the game of basketball no matter where and when it’s played. That’s right… It’s EuroBasket 2007 in Spain. The European basketball championship is living up to its billing as one of the most competitive in history, according to an AP report.

This year the tournament is filled with NBA stars representing their native countries. Among those big names are the NBA Finals MVP Tony Parker (France), 2006-07 MVP Dirk Nowitzki (Germany) and Pau Gasol (Spain). All three players have averaged more than 20 points per game in leading their teams every way they can and are the top three scorers in the tournament so far.

Besides the unprecedented star power imported from the NBA, team play is still the way to win games. According to the previous AP report, Lithuania, which won Group C ahead of Germany and Turkey, has emerged as a serious contender. The 2003 champions are racking up the best team statistics in the tournament so far, leading in points scored per game (88.3), three-point percentage (42.6), total rebounds (40.3) and assists (15.3).

In today’s second game in Group F of the Qualifying Round (France beat Germany in the first game, 78-66), Wizards forward Darius Songaila again started for his native country Lithuania. Songaila tallied eight points and four rebounds in 16 minutes as Lithuania remained undefeated (4-0) in their quest to regain the EuroBasket title by beating Italy 79-74. Lithuania will take on Parker’s France on Monday.

After two convincing victories in their first two games against Turkey (86-69) led by current NBA players Mehmet Okur and Hido Turkoglu and Czech Republic (95-75), Lithuania won a close game by beating Dirk Nowitzki’s Germany team (84-80) and finished off the preliminary round with a solid 3-0 record in Group C of FIBA EuroBasket 2007.

Lithuania and 11 other teams advanced to the qualifying round and were divided to two pools Group E and F. The top three teams from Group C (Lithuania, Germany, and Turkey) and Group D (Slovenia, France and Italy) will compete each other in Group F and the top four teams from each group will qualify to the Quarter Finals.

One of the key players on this Lithuania national team is Wizards forward Darius Songaila. He started at power forward in all three games and averaged 9.7 ppg and 3.7 rpg while playing an important role on stopping Nowitzki, the reigning 2006-07 NBA Most Valuable Player.

Darius Songalia on the win over Germany: “We won and we had a very decent game. We had some problems shooting but a victory is the best way of getting into the second round of a tournament. They just made some great shots but we did a pretty good job. We always had a man on (Dirk Nowitzki), that was the key that we stopped him quite well.”