18.09.2005

Greeks Pull Away For Second Win

Greece defeated Bosnia-Herzegovina 67-50 for their second win in three games to qualify for the elimination round as the second placed team from Group C.

Greece will take on Israel on Tuesday with the winners advancing to the quarter-final round, while Group C's third placed team France must travel to Novi Sad to face Serbia & Montenegro.

Slovenia are in the last eight as the winners of Group C.

For Bosnia-Herzegovina, Mensur Bajramovic's team suffered their third loss in the Championship.

		Dimitrios Diamantidis dished 10 assists for Greece

They have not won a game in the preliminary round of EuroBasket since 1993.

After the big loss on Saturday to the Slovenians, Greece wanted to show Europe they are still strong medal contenders with a convincing win.

Bajramovic and Co made them work hard for three quarters before falling away over the final 10 minutes.

"Unfortunately we showed again we couldn't keep the rhythm the whole game, and fell in the last minutes," said Vedran Princ, a member of the losing side.

Just like in their first two games, Bosnia-Herzegovina ran out of energy in the last quarter.

Greece scored many easy points on fast breaks and offensive rebounds in the final 10 minutes.

"We had 20 assists and that shows a lot of desire and concentration," said coach Panagiotis Yannakis of Greece.

Ten of those assists came from Panathinaikos guard Dimitrios Diamantidis, a tournament individual high so far.

Bosnia-Herzegovina were on top at the end of the first quarter due largely to Jasmin Hukic, who had a perfect first half from behind the arc with three makes as his side led 16-15.

The Greek side relied on Konstantinos Tsartsaris, who poured in 12 first-half points and hauled down four rebounds, most of them in the second quarter, when his team took over the game and opened a 33-23 advantage.

Bosnia-Herzegovina struck with a pair of late three-pointers to close the half down trailing 33-29.

If Greece's fans suspected the game was already theirs, they were sadly mistaken as the Bosnians never give up.

The Blue and Yellow fought back and remained close during the entire third quarter.

Hukic's desperation shot at the buzzer missed but Greece held only a 43-41 lead with 10 minutes to go.

Hukic tied the game at the start of the fourth quarter, but his team never managed to move back in front.

Greece then got a spark from Nikos Zisis, who fired his team to a 9-0 run, and that was the beginning of the end for Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Over the next eight minutes they added only three more points, and Theodoros Papaloukas caught fire to lead the Greeks as they blew the game wide open with a 19-point advantage to secure the triumph.

Antonios Fotsis had 15 points for Greece, Lazaros Papadopoulos finished with 10 and Diamantidis weighed in with five but in addition to his 10 assists also pulled down six rebounds.

Hukic had 13 points for the losing side while Kenan Bajramovic added 10.

18.09.2005

Stakes may be high as Bosnia-Herzegovina face Greece

Greece are bracing themselves for an uncomfortable 40 minutes against Bosnia-Herzegovina in final EuroBasket Group C game.

The Greeks played like champions on Friday night in a resounding triumphover France, but were then brushed aside by Slovenia 24 hours later, meaning there is still work to do if they are to survive the group. Should France upset Slovenia with a margin of victory between 11 to 16
points, then Greece can clinch the group and a palce in the quarter-finals if they defeat Bosnia-Herzegovina.

If France win in the first Belgrade game of the day, however, defeat against Damir Mrsic and Co would knock Greece out of the tournament.

Saturday's setback truly stung as Greece simply did not play well, especially on defence.

Greece never allowed the French to get into their rhythm on day one, but Slovenia were not intimidated against Panagiotis Yannakis' men.

"We played much worse last night than we did against France," admitted Nikolaos Chatzivrettas.

"We talked about it in the locker room between us, and know what went wrong. Now we are ready to fix it."

From a statistical point of view, were a woeful three of 21 (14%) from behind the arc and 17 of 28 (60%) at the line.

Slovenia beat them on the boards, grabbing 39 rebounds to just 29 for the Greeks.

Yannakis is not as concerned about the poor shooting as he is by his team's poor defence.

"The game against Slovenia was a lesson for us," Yannakis said. "In basketball there are always ups and downs.

"The problem was we tried to find offensive solutions, and not defensive solutions. Nobody is going to give us anything, we have to take it".

Victory for Bosnia-Herzegovina has not happened at a EuroBasket since 1997, but streaks are meant to be ended and Sunday could be their day.

"We'll try to do the best and surprise the Greek team," said Mrsic.

What might make Bosnia-Herzegovina optimistic is the fact they have averaged more points per game (63.5) than the defensive-minded Greeks, whose 60 points per contest is the lowest in the tournament.

As the game could become do-or-die for both teams, expect a lot of tough and aggressive plays. There is no doubt that players will fight for every ball and possession.

Neither team should be shy about attacking the basket as both teams rank near the bottom in blocked shots.

Both sides have a total of two blocks.

Also, neither has been effective hitting the offensive glass.

Bosnia-Herzegovina are last in that category with 6.5 per game while Greece is 14th with 8.0.

If that continues, then both teams will stress the need to get good shots as there will be no second chances.

Coach Mensur Bajramovic is confident his players can win but they must stay the course which has seen them push Slovenia and France close in their first two games.

"We won't change anything for the game against Greece," he said. "We'll try to give our best again. Greece is in top form, they seem unbeatable, but we'll try to do it."