Greece’s national basketball team eliminated Czech Republic, Sunday with a 94-88 victory in Berlin, Germany advancing to the quarterfinals of the 2022 Eurobasket.
Greece had previously lost both the World Championship and the Olympic qualifiers to the Czechs.
In spite of strong resistance from the Czechs who had a solid plan containing Giannis Antetokounmpo and marking his attempts for distant shots, Greece found a way to the hoop thanks to Georgios Papagiannis and Kostas Papanikolaou, reaching 11-2 and forcing the Czech coach to call a time-out.
The heavy defence on Giannis continued, however, the Greek Freak and his older brother Thanasis Antetokounmpo have raised the quality of the 2022 team to a level that would not allow Greece to fall to the Czech Republic for a third year in a row.
Giannis made just four points in the first half but reacted with 23 in the second to take his tally to 27 on the night, plus 10 rebounds and five assists. Nick Calathes followed with 14 points and Ioannis Papapetrou added another 13.
Papagiannis made it 16-6 just four minutes before the end of the quarter, sending Greece to +10.
But a 12-0 run by the Czech Republic, turned the tide. At the end of the first quarter, the score was 20-20. At half time, the score was 45-41 in favour of the Czech Republic.
In the third quarter, Nick Kalathis played well while Antetokounmpo began to have better contact with the opposing basket, helping the team close the gap to 50-49. The third quarter ended with Greece at -4, (63-67).
Alternatives supplied by bench players such as Giannoulis Larentzakis offered coach Dimitris Itoudis more options that the Czechs could not contain.
Greece pushed hard, especially in the fourth quarter while being cheered on by 4,000 diehard supporters in the stands. Greece is now the favourite for the title following Serbia’s elimination by Italy.
Greece will now face host Germany in the quarterfinals on Tuesday night (Wednesday 4.30am AEST).