HERAKLION (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European Qualifiers) - Buoyed by Nick Calathes and Thanasis Antetokounmpo joining the team for their second game of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European Qualifiers, Greece raced past Israel 82-61 to move to 2-0 in Group H.

Calathes, Antetokounmpo and Ian Vougioukas did not play in Friday's game and their experience showed as Greece blew out Israel in the Heraklion Arena Dyo Aorakia after needing overtime to edge Great Britain at the start of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European Qualifier window.

Turning point: Greece were only leading 31-30 with 1:49 minutes left in the first half but went on a 15-4 surge spanning the second and third quarters to take control of the game 46-34. Israel never threatened the rest of the way.

Game hero: Calathes was in complete control the entire game and collected 11 points and eight assists to lead the way. 

Stats don't lie: Greece dished out 20 assists in shooting 49 percent for the game but won the game on defense, holding Israel to just 34 percent from the field and forcing 26 turnovers. 

Game notes: Israel hung with Greece for a half and then the hosts just took over the game completely. The absolute killer for Israel was the introduction into the game in the third quarter by Antetokounmpo, who showed why he is a human highlight film with three big dunks in scoring nine points to go with two big blocks in 10 minutes of action. Greece moved to 2-0 in Group H while Israel are 1-1 after having beaten Estonia in their opener.

They said it: "We had a very successful week. We finished the game against Israel, it was a very hard game for us. Israel is a very, very dangerous team. They use the transition game and their match-up defenses are very dangerous if you are not focused. You can have a lot of problems. Compared to the game against Great Britain, we had at least one game so we can work on things and we prepared the team with a few more details than the first game. At the beginning everybody wanted to shoot but we found the balance and good action on offense and after that the game was normal for us. We didn't work that well on defensive transition and defensive rebounding, but we have only been together for seven days. I am very happy with all the guys. We used 16 players for these two games. And I want to thank them altogether." - Greece coach Thanasis Skourtopoulos.

"I was happy with the past week and very happy with this experience. We are just starting something new with these windows - the way we prepare the team and we have a young team. It is a very positive group of people. I really enjoy coaching them, but as you could see today we had a lack of experience a little bit. And in a way we lost the game in the first half. We executed well our defensive game plan but we turned the ball over a lot. And we have to learn from that. To play against Greece, it's always different, their style of the game. They are very physical and you have to come ready with a lot of experience. So I am happy for this experience, especially for the young players and the young team." - Israel coach Oded Kattache.

FIBA