ANKARA (2010 FIBA World Championship) – Greece prevailed 83-80 in a hard fought and exciting game at Ankara Arena.

Vasileios Spanoulis won his duel against JJ Barea, scoring half of his personal Greek National Team record 28 points in the final frame, including hitting all eight of his free-throw attempts in the last quarter.

There was little to separate both sides in a game that saw 22 lead changes and nine ties. It came down to Greece getting Puerto Rico over the foul limit and hitting from the charity stripe.

Barea and Carmelo Lee buried early three-pointers to put Puerto Rico – who were without injured star guard Carlos Arroyo – up 11-6 before Konstantinos Tsartsaris and Vasileios Spanoulis replied with long bombs of their own to edge Greece in front 14-13.

The teams went back and forth until Nathan Peavy connected from long range in the dying seconds of the period to put Puerto Rico up 23-21.

Tsartaris converted two three-point plays to put the Greeks up 28-24.

Barea then took over, scoring 12 of his 15 first-half points in the second quarter to give Manolo Cintron’s team a 41-35 lead at the break.

Ricardo Sanchez buried back-to-back three-pointers to put Puerto Rico up 47-38 early in the third quarter.

Greece answered with a 14-4 run, capped off by a Dimitris Diamantidis lay-up to lead 52-51 midway through the period. Ioannis Bourousis hit from beyond the arc to put the Greeks in front 59-56 heading into the final frame.

Barea got his team within 62-60 and then found Angel Vassallo for a wing three-pointer that had Puerto Rico in front 63-62.  Ramos pushed it to 65-62 but Spanoulis then hit from long range and Bourousis had a spectacular putback that made it 67-65 for Greece with six minutes remaining.

Carmelo Lee broke a 70 all deadlock with a wing three. However, Puerto Rico got over the foul limit and Spanoulis was clutch at the free-throw line, giving his side an 81-75 cushion with 32 seconds to go and they held on.

Quotes:

Jonas Kazlauskas (Greece head coach): “I’m happy with this team. We had some problems. One was the atmosphere and the other was facing bigger players. We changed everything in the second half.”

Ioannis Bourousis (Greece centre): “This was a tough game for us because Puerto Rico played very well. We shot well inside and out and they did too. It was a very good game.”

Manolo Cintron (Puerto Rico head coach): “This was a great game. There is no free-throw shooting (team) like Greece. They were great.”

JJ Barea (Puerto Rico guard): “It was a great game to watch until the fourth quarter. Greece are a great team. We couldn’t keep them off the foul line and they made their free-throws.”


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KAYSERI (2010 FIBA World Championship) – Germany needed two overtimes to beat Serbia 82-81 in the second day of competition in Group A of the 2010 FIBA World Championship.

The game was well contested from the start, where the Serbaisn started the game by going strong in the paint and had a balanced attack. The first quarter ended 17-14 in favor of Serbia as Kosta Perovic, Novica Velickovic and Milan Macvan scored 12 of those points.

Then in the second quarter the bench players came out for Germany and scored big for them as guard Heiko Schaffartzik made 11 points, 8 of them in the second and also Jan Jagla was a factor to give them a 37-34 halftime lead.

Demond Greene and Steffen Hamann (who visited with FIBATV.Com after the victory) took control of the game in the second half as Greene made some big shots to put Germany on top as they finished the third quarter up 56-54.

The Serbian shooters were held during the game but came out in the final quarter, as Aleksandar Radic made two straight three pointers in the final seconds to send the game into the first overtime of the FIBA World Championship tied at 69.

In the overtime period the veteran guards came into play again as Hamann, captain of the German team, made two key baskets at the beginning of the quarter to give the Germans an early lead. Then Serbia came back with a three pointer by Milenko Tepic and a free throw by Kosta Perovic tied the game at 73 with 1:06 left. The game stayed that way as both teams scored 4 points each, to go into a second overtime.

The German offense exploded in the second overtime led by Jan Jagla and Demond Greene while their defense pressured the ball to disrupt the Serbian offense. An impressive fade away three pointer by Jan Jagla with 1:04 left didn’t take the Serbians away but in the final possession the German defense avoided a loss.

Quotes:

Dirk Bauermann (Head coach, Germany): “Both teams deserved to win today. We played so hard. Jagla’s 3 pts shoot at the second overtime was the most critical point in the match. The harder you work, luckier you are. We have very young team like our opponent Serbia and we need to make a lot of progress too. I am happy that we won this game.”

Dusan Ivkovic (Head coach, Serbia): “It was tough game with 2 overtimes. German team had better control the game and they were sometime lucky, as in Jagla’s 3 point shot in the second overtime. We still have 3 more games and we will be better.  I also want to congratulate German team.”

Jan-Hendrik Jagla, (Forward, Germany): “Both teams were great. Although there were two overtimes, none of the players showed any sign of exhaust. We did our best. We lost yesterday and that was really bad and if we did not win today, we would not go any further. I am happy we did it.”

Steffen Hamann (Guard, Germany): “I think its a big win, especially for a young team like us. This moment team going especially for a young team like this. we don’t have too much time to celebrate, we have a tough game tomorrow. Its my 7-8th year in this team, we have a different role, growing up our young team. They make mistake, i make mistakes, it happens a lot but we help each other.”

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