Greece qualified for the World Championship for the first time in history by coming back from an 11-point deficit to beat Italy 60-56 and take fifth place at the 2009 EuroBasket Women’s Championship in Latvia.
Evanthia Maltsi poured in 26 points, Pelagia Papamichail had 15 points and eight rebounds and Dimitra Kalentzou added 12 points, five rebounds and seven assists for the Greeks, who qualified for the 2010 Worlds in the Czech Republic as well as the 2011 EuroBasket Women in Poland.
“I am really happy because we are going to the World Championship,” Maltsi said.
“But every game we took one at a time and stayed focused and concentrated,” said Maltsi, who also had six rebounds and three steals while hitting six of eight three-pointers.
Italy built leads of four and five points in the first quarter in going ahead 15-10. But Maltsi hit three-pointers to start and finish a 13-0 run spanning the first and second quarter for a 23-15 advantage early in the second quarter.
The Italian team held Greece scoreless for almost six minutes as Italy went on a 10-0 run for a 27-25 lead. The Italians were ahead 29-27 at intermission.
Greece were within 37-34 before Alexander scored four points on one possession in an 8-0 run to give Italy their biggest lead of the game at 45-34 with 2:47 left in the third.
However at 11 points down the Greek team pulled together and showed great heart as Maltsi drained a three-pointer and Lolita Limoura hit a lay-up – her first points of the tournament – to make it 46-40 after three periods.
The Greeks played zone defense in the fourth quarter and Italy could not solve it, going scoreless for four minutes. Kalentzou’s jumper knotted the game at 50-50 with four minutes left.
Maltsi assisted a Papamichail lay-up as Greece opened a 58-52 advantage with 35 seconds left. And Papamichail’s lay-up with 10 seconds to play iced the game at 60-54.
Maltsi was selected as the Most Valuable Player of the tournament in 2009.