It was a very tense quarter final last Thursday at the Volos Sporting Centre between the Greece and Lithuania U18 teams.

The large crowd that turned up to watch the two teams play and give their support to the young Greeks appeared to make things worse at times, as the players displayed a difficulty to handle the situation and stand up to the expectations.

And this wasn’t just an issue for Vlassopoulos’ players, as the Lithuanians seemed to have an even worse case of cold feet, with a pitiful 30% scoring percentage from all their attempts throughout the game!

This resulted in the two teams having to solve their differences from the free throw line, where the Greeks held their cool (17/19) while their opponents messed up (15/29).

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The game started poorly, with neither team being able to find the basket. The low 12-14 result of the first quarter is a clear indicator of that fact. Things didn’t improve before half time, with Greece having a narrow 26-21 lead.

The game started to pick up in the third quarter, where the Greek team scored an impressive 21 points and at some point even found themselves leading by seven (42-49 at the 33rd).

Yet that only served to awaken their opponents who got back into it and went ahead by three, with only a few minutes remaining.

But they couldn’t make the most of their game-deciding opportunities, with the weight of the ball appearing too much for Augustas Marculionis to handle.

The son of the great Sarunas Marculionis ended the game with 0/13 shots and missed the important three-pointer that would’ve given his team a clear advantage with only seconds remaining.

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This resulted in Greece bringing the scores level (55-55) thanks to a cheeky floater shot by MVP Rogavopoulos (25 pts, 15 assists) that lead the game to overtime.

In the additional five minutes, the Lithuanians appeared unable to psychologically handle the situation and even though they were never too far behind, they just couldn’t get into it.

And so, the win eventually went to the young Greeks who will continue their journey to the final four of the European Basketball tournament where they will meet Spain on Saturday.