In the second day of the international “Acropolis tournament” Canada washed off (or tried to) the embarrassment of -74 by Greece last night by forcing Serbia to their first defeat during their preparation for World Championship while in the other game Greece destroyed Slovenia this time.
Denam Brown was the key player (22 points, 17 in first half) of Canada in their 62-58 win over Serbia in the first game of the day in OAKA, Athens.
Serbia was leading for the biggest part of first half but Canadians reacted and with a run they managed to go to the locker rooms leading, 34-27. At the beginning of the third quarter Canada played great defence forcing Serbia not to score for almost five minutes and even took the lead 53-29!
Serbia tried to save the game in the last quarter and although they cut the difference down to four, making the Canadians worry, the North Americans retained the win and registered their first win of the tournament.
Scores by quarters: 10-12, 34-27, 56-38, 62-58
Canada: Anderosn 6, Kepkay , Bell 3, Bucknor, Brown 22, Famutimi, Doornekamp 2, Sacre 3, Shepherd 10, Kendall 8, Anthony 5, Olynyk 3
Serbia: Tepic, Milosavljevic 2, Paunic 4, Markovic 10, Savanovic 4, Raduljica 8, Perovic 6, Velickovic 9, Macvan 5, Keselj 8, Teodosic 2, Rasic
In the second game of the night Greece, once again, confirmed their terrific form in an emphatic win over Slovenia, showing mercy in the end and stopping the difference at 24 points, 96-72.
In the beginning of the match Slovenians took the lead 6-1. But that was all for the Greens as Greece took over the game, and using Sofocles Schortsianitis first took the lead 7-6 and then expanded their lead to as much as 27-19 at the end of first quarter.
In the second quarter there was only one team on the court, Team Greece that is, and with a 31-7 run the two teams ended the first half with Greeks leading 58-26.
In the third quarter Slovenians took advantage of Kazlauskas’ substituions and with a 8-0 run took the difference down to 19, 63-44. Still the host team managed to close the third quarter leading with over 30, 79-48.
Greece continued toying with Slovenia in the last quarter as well, taking the difference even up to 35 points at some point, 88-53. With six minutes to go the Greeks decided to lower a gear-or-two-or-three and Slovenians fought back a bit to end the game with 96-72.
Scores by quarters: 27-19, 58-26, 79-48, 96-72
Slovenia: Slokar 12 (2), Lakovic 6, Udrih 6, Rizvic 4, Globucar 14 (3), Z. Dragic 2, Jagodnik, Zupan 5, Vidmar 17, Muric 6
Greece: Papanikolaou 2, Kaimakoglou 4, Zisis 14, Spanoulis 3, Calathes 16, Fotsis 13, Printezis 9, Perperoglou 6 (2), Tsartsaris 11, Diamantides 1, Vouyoukas 2, Schortsianitis 15
