Greece made sure of their place in the FIBA U19 World Championship quarter finals with a dominant first half and some cool nerves down the stretch to record a tight 76-72 win over France at ASB Stadium in Auckland.
The Greeks led 21-13 at quarter time and 42-27 at half time to establish a break France could not recover from.
Nikolaos Pappas was the key player offensively, scoring 16 points for the half as Greece outscored their rivals 22-10 in the keyway. Pappas finished with 20 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists.
With a guaranteed quarter final place on the line, France made their furious run at the start of the last quarter, going on a 13-3 streak to close the gap to 63-53 with 5:16 remaining. A Kostas Papanikolaou bucket seemed to have stemmed the tide for Greece, but Les Bleus came again.
Christophe Leonard scored off an offensive rebound and then found Bryson Pope for another 2 to reduce the margin to 8 points. Following a big Leonard block on Kostas Sloukas, Jonathan Bourhis nailed his fourth 3-pointer for the game to reduce the margin to 67-72 with 0:32 to play.
Just when a quarter final place seemed in peril, Leonidas Kaselakis and Pappas hit four straight free throws to secure the narrow win.
Stars for Greece were Pappas, Kaselakis (18 points, 9 rebounds) and Sloukis (17 points, 5 assists).
France will progress to the quarter finals if the USA can defeat Lithuania. A USA victory will also see Greece take second place in Group E and face rivals Argentina.