Greece ends 4th in Europe
Greece lost 69-78 to Lithuania yesterday in Madrid and ended fourth in the European Basketball Championship. This means it will have to play in a tournament next year to secure qualification to the 2008 Olympics. Panayiotis Yiannakis’s men were clearly tired from the huge effort in the semifinal a day earlier and hardly troubled the Lithuanians in the second half after closing the first with a seven-point deficit (34-41). A disciplinary problem with center Lazaros Papadopoulos before halftime meant he did not feature at all in the second half. Problems in attack and poor defensive play against Lithuania’s three-point shooting meant the gap became too wide for Greece to close it. Nikos Zisis was Greece’s best player with 23 points. Dimos Dikoudis added another 10. Greece played in the third-place playoffs after losing to Spain 82-77 on Saturday in the semifinal. The national team had beaten Slovenia on Friday 63-62 after a memorable comeback from 16 points down.
