Home FIBA EuroBasket 2009 Greece falls to Russia

Greece falls to Russia

ImageThe first loss for the Greek side in this tournament came against Russia who has 2/2 wins in the second group stage and a 2-2 record overall.

 


The Russians started the game strong and took early leads, while the Greek side looked lost and confused resulting to a 9-point lead for Russia after the first quarter (12-21).

 

In the second quarter Greece tried to fight back and they actually came within a 4-point range, but the Russians kept their cool and pulled off again, taking a 7-point lead into halftime (32-39).

 

Greece came into the third quarter determined to show who's boss, keeping the Russians pointless for the first seven minutes and taking their first lead (40-39) behind a 8-0 run. Russia reacted and with back-to-back three-pointers kept a 1-point lead to enter the final period (48-47).

 

The Greeks tied the game with one free-throw early in the last period, only to be answered by three consecutive three-pointers by Sergey Monia that gave Russia a comfortable 9-point lead which later grew even to 10 points in just under 4 minutes to time.  Greece of course tried to comeback and they actually came as close as 2 points, after a three-pointer by Antonis Fotsis and again later with another triple this time by Giorgos Printezis, but their effort was too short due to bad shot selection in the end. The final score was 65-68.

 

RUSSIA 68-65 GREECE


Greece: Kalambokis, Bourousis 12, Zisis 3, Spanoulis 12, Calathes, Fotsis 10, Printezis 7, Glyniadakis, Kaimakoglou 4, Perperoglou 4, Schortsanitis 13

Russia: Vorontsevic 4, Kurbanov 3, Bykov 3, Fridzon 8, McCarty 17, Sokolov, Dmitriev, Vyaltsev, Monya 16, Ponkrashov 4, Zozulin 3, Mozgov 10


Game quotes:

 

David Russia (Russia coach): I think that we controlled the game and we deserved to win the game tonight. There is really nobody younger and more inexperienced than us. And to beat Croatia and Greece in three days and the way we did is admirable. We had more to gain by this game than Greece and that may have had a difference in this game in the first half. Players are human beings. And I think Greece probably let down a little. And we jumped on it hard.

 

Kelly McCarty: Defense, defense, defense. We played great today in that sense. Greece is the best offensive team here and we held them down to their tournament low and it says a lot about our game tonight.

 

Nikos Zisis: They took many offensive rebounds (15 for Russia) and that made it tougher for us. The more they took the more nervous we got and we didn't always react as we should have. Mozgov is a big force in the paint and he changed a lot of shots we took around the rim and that made a big difference.

 

 

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