Greece Send Valiant Portugal Home

European champions Greece went on a decisive run at the start of the second quarter en route to an 85-67 win against Portugal on Tuesday at the EuroBasket.

Portugal led 17-15 with two minutes to go in the first quarter but Greece hit them with a 16-2 run over the next seven minutes to take command.

The Portuguese never controlled Dimos Ntikoudis, who led the Greeks in scoring with 17 points and nine rebounds.

"We played the game really tough," said Greek captain Michail Kakiouzis, who contributed eight points.

"And if we play the rest of the games like this, we won't have any problems.

"Game by game, we're getting better, we're finding solutions on offense and that helped us on defense today, too. I hope and I think we will play better in the next games.

"We have really big confidence right now."

Despite trailing 45-34 at half-time, Portugal never gave up and cut the deficit to 45-37 early in the third quarter but the Greeks replied with a 6-0 run to stamp their authority on the contest.

Paolo Cunha's jumper with three minutes to go in the quarter gave Portugal a glimmer of hope, cutting the deficit to 54-47, but that soon faded away with Greece hitting them with a 10-0 run.

click for more details

source : eurobasket2007.org