The introduction of Greece’s marquee stars, particularly Giannis Antetokounmpo, spurred them to a 104-86 win against Latvia in the premiere of the “Acropolis” friendly tournament ahead of EuroBasket 2025.
The Greeks fielded a stronger lineup in the game at OAKA Arena on Thursday morning (AEST) with Antetokounmpo making his first appearance for the national side in their series of friendly matches organised ahead of the major tournament.
The Greek Freak inspired an improved display from Greece, with him scoring 25 points from just over 15 minutes of play while also opening up space for three-point shots as the team converted 13 of their 25 attempts from outside the circle.
Antetokounmpo was one of four Greeks to get into double digits for points with the others being Giannoulis Larentzakis (14), Alexandros Samodurov (11) and Tyler Dorsey (10), while captain Kostas Sloukas (8) and Dinos Mitoglou (9) were just behind.
The scoreboard at the end of each quarter read: 30-17, 61-45, 82-66, 104-86
Greece coach Vassilis Spanoulis was left very satisfied with their display against the EuroBasket 2025 co-hosts.
“I am generally very pleased with our offense, in defence we brought energy and passion, we stuck to our tactics,” he said post-game to media.
“We made some mistakes that we need to correct, but in general I am pleased, there are things that we will keep and others that we want to improve.”
He expressed pleasure with the introduction of Antetokounmpo, saying:
“The point is to open up the spaces for Giannis Antetokounmpo, to have shooters around him and for him to decide when to create and when to score. Shooting is often a matter of the day, I am interested in taking free shots.”
Latvia will face Italy on Friday morning (AEST) in the next day of the friendly tournament before Greece takes on the Italians the following morning for the third and final day of the event.
Source: AMNA
