news.ert.gr - Sunday 10th of August 2008
Greek men basketball team did not manage to break negative tradition in games with Spain (7th consecutive defeat in official tournaments and 27 in total ) in the Beijing Olympics. Despite determination and endurance of Greek players the World Champion Spain won 81-66 over Greece in their Beijing Olympics Group B opener Sunday.
The scoring gap belied what was a fast-paced and closely matched-game, with the result largely determined by free throws: Greece shot just 11 of 24, while Spain missed onlythree points out of 25. Literally, Greece lost the game to Spain in the third quarter when the Spanish players took full advantage of the Greek players "black out" in both defense and offense scoring 15-2 holding the lead with +19 points (50-31).
Jose Manual Calderon shot 63% from the field to add 13 points, Rudy Fernandez scored 16 points and Pau Gasol added 11, putting an end to dreams for reversal of score. Vasileios Spanoulis led Greece with 15 points, while guard Dimitrios Diamantidis added 14 but they were alone in the offence.
Quarters: 20-16, 35-29, 62-46, 81-66.
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