Eurobasket 07 - Greece vs Lithuania 16/09

16 September 2007
Bronze For Lithuania

The two last champions of Europe from 2003 and 2005 met on Sunday evening in Palacio de Deportes in Madrid and when the smoke cleared Lithuania beat Greece 78-69.

Lithuania hit two birds with one stone.

By winning the game they'll get to wear the bronze medal on the EuroBasket 2007 podium later on tonight, and also earned the third European ticket to the Olympic games in 2008.




Theodoros Papaloukas (Greece)
Theo Papaloukas had eight points in the loss.
Greece wanted to win a third medal in a row, but saw a tough Lithuanian group who recovered in time from the surprising loss to Russia in the semi-finals last night.

Ramunas Siskauskas continued his great form from the last games and downed a couple of three-pointers in crunch time to secure the win.

This time he was joined by Ksistof Lavrinovic and Linas Kleiza who shot very well both inside and outside the arc, to make sure Greece will stay behind for the vast majority of the game.

"It's not a gold medal but I'll take this," said Darius Songaila after the game. "For sure it's a great feeling. Now we're going to focus on the Olympics."

Sarunas Jasikevicius, who hammered the last nail in Greece's coffin, finished with 11 points and five assists despite a slow start.

Greece, once again, had only one player with a good shooting night, and this time it was Nikos Zisis.

He dropped in 23 points on 58% shooting from the field, but the total of the team was poor.

The team of coach Yannakis shot only 35%, and couldn't find the way to break the Lithuanian offense, despite forcing 13 turnovers.

Lavrinovic was in a zone in the first minutes, scoring seven points in a row for Lithuania, to make it 7-2 early in the game.

Greece didn't fall behind for long, played tougher on defense and with a 6-0 run got back into the game.

Sarunas Jasikevicius struggled in the first quarter, and for the last basket of the quarter




Ramunas Siskauskas (Lithuania)
Ramunas Siskauskas had 13 points in leading Lithuania to the bronze medal.
Dimitrios Diamantidis stole it from him going coast-to-coast for the lay up and making it 20-19 Lithuania after the first quarter.

Both teams had already six players involved with points after ten minutes, and they continued to rely on them.

Greece collected some offensive boards to take the lead back, but that didn't scare Ksistof Lavrnovic who stepped up with four more points, and gave Lithuania the lead back.

The game went a little out of control as the referees called a double unsportsmanlike foul on Diamantidis and Darius Songaila, and then came a technical on Lazaros Papadopoulos, which was his third.

Lithuania used the mess to take a 39-30 lead with 2:32 left in the half, and cap a 13-1 run, on the way to a seven point lead at the end of the half, 41-34.

Greece kept fighting their way back to the game, and never allowed Lithuania to get too far ahead, but eight points in a row by Kleiza, including two hits from long range, made sure the former champs would not come back.

Ksistof Lavrinovic recorded his 15th, 16th and 17th point with a three point play, to offset a 6-0 Greek run and allow Lithuania enter the last quarter up 62-54.

Greece tried to go with Spanoulis time after time but earned only two points on that, while Siskauskas was hot on the other end to make it 70-58.

Darius Lavrinovic and then Siskauskas blocked Greek shots to keep the margin on double-digits.

When the later nailed two big ones in a row from long range Greece needed a miracle to take the game, down by 11 with 2:02 to play.

Lithuania earned their first ever bronze medal and fifth medal in total in a EuroBasket.

Greece finished fourth and lost the bronze medal game for the fourth time in their history.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Eurobasket
• 07
• Greece
• Lithuannia

[Tr3L0sGLaDy]

Im Greek and i accept that Lithuania beat us fairly. Its a very good team...

But i hate seeing americans spamming with shit ... if u like that go spam at ur NBA videos

[molonlave2010]

Respect to Lithuania!

[GarshardJeVard]

USA> Every other country combined.

[TheLtmusic]

Respect to Greece

Both Lithuania and Greece don't think of basketball as a sport, they think of it as a religion...

[prancuzaz]

Lithaunia and Greece have always played good basketball. :)

[Victor92NeaSanta]

Respect to Lithuania from Greece.They deserved bronze medal if not anything more in Turkey.

[CwL97]

Lithuania!



[CwL97]

Lithuania!

[NTMIB]

@TeRrOrBlAdEgr USA 13 Olympic gold medals.

You mad?

[TeRrOrBlAdEgr]

@NTMIB man u sick o my god u are in every europe basketball team in all channels and u write write write all the time about nasty americans 0mg

[Yuko89]

congratulations to Lithuania from a Greek.

It's a real pity that that this was the stint of the golden Lithuanians. I hope the next decade is as successful for Lithuania and Greece as the 2000s were :)

[joevald32]

Is not just the defense is the in europe the ofense is better than USA. You know why? Because european basketball is more organized and fundamental that american basketball. USA style is more man to man ofense and individual style, in europe the basketball is old school basketball that consist in moving the ball all the time using pick and roll plays, movin the ball inside to outside looking for easy longshots or jump shots or easy layups. Is a style that everybody touch the ball. OLD SCHOOL.