Greece rebounds to snatch late victory
Vassilis Spanoulis hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to lead Greece over Croatia 81-78 yesterday in the European championship. The win virtually assures Greece a place in the quarterfinals. Greece now meets Portugal tomorrow in its last group game ahead of knockout competition all the way to the end, beginning with the quarterfinals. After Croatia’s Marko Popovic hit his two free-throws with seven seconds left to tie it at 78, Spanoulis, the former Houston Rockets guard, dribbled the length of the court before slipping off his marker to knock down a wide-open shot from nearly a meter behind the line. Dimitrios Diamantidis, who hit some clutch threes down the stretch, led Greece with 23 points, while Mario Kasun led Croatia with 15. Greece went into the game having lost to world champion and host Spain, 76-58, last Friday night in a repeat of last summer’s final for the world title. Although the pre-match talk had been about Greece looking for revenge for their defeat at the Worlds, the more pressing matter was to regain momentum. Spain were roared on by a partisan crowd and quickly put Panagiotis Yiannakis’s side under pressure. They led by eight at the end of the first quarter, and stormed away in the second to lead 45-24 at the midway point and there was no way back. Although Greece had a 36-32 advantage in rebounds they failed to trouble Spain mainly because they shot just six of 25 (24 percent) from three-point range. Joao Gomes scored 23 points and grabbed 11 rebounds yesterday to help Portugal beat Israel 94-85. Portugal, which qualified for the tournament with a 69-49 win over Israel last September, also got 20 points from Francisco Jordao. «This victory is confirmation of the work we have done in our preparation and of the attitude we have, which is to go out and win every game,» forward Joao Santos said. (Reuters/AP/Kathimerini)
