MADRID (FIBA Europe Championship) - Jose Calderon led Spain past previously unbeaten Russia 81-69 at the Telefonica Arena in Madrid on Sunday night.
                                                                                     
Calderon scored nine of his team-high 17 points in the third quarter when Spain took control of the EuroBasket qualifying round game and built a 12-point lead.
 
They led by as many as 15 points in the final quarter and were never seriously threatened thereafter by David Blatt’s Russians.
 
Beaten in their last Group B game by Croatia, the world champions have recovered nicely with triumphs over Greece and now Russia.
 
Russia coach Blatt said: "Congratulations to coach (Pepu) Hernandez and the Spanish national team. They deserve the game, they played better and certainly are the best team in this tournament.”
 
“It’s an important victory for us,” said Juan Carlos Navarro of Spain.
 
“Russia are a very difficult team to play against, they have a complete team. It’s complicated to play against a team whose perimeter players can penetrate and shoot and the inside players can run and shoot, too.”
 
The Spanish trailed 23-20 after the first quarter, during which Russia were 5-of-7 from 3-point range.
 
Andrei Kirilenko hit a three-ball for the first points of the game and then after Spain took a 7-3 lead, Victor Kryapa buried a trio of 3-pointers from the arc in a 9-2 run to put the visitors into a 12-9 advantage.
 
Calderon’s second 3-pointer of the game with 28 seconds remaining in the quarter closed the gap to 23-20, and then Spain went on a 10-0 run over the first four minutes of the third quarter to lead 30-23 lead.
 
Russia would claw their way back and level the score at 32-32 on a pair of Kirilenko free throws with 2:53 left in the half, but a basket by Jorge Garbajosa immediately put Spain back in front and they led the rest of the way.
 
By half-time, Spain were in front 40-35 and at the end of third quarter, they led 63-51.
 
The closest Russia would get in the fourth quarter was 76-67 on a Kryapa 3-pointer with 2:55 remaining.
 
The next points were scored by Felipe Reyes with a jump shot at the free throw line as Spain won comfortably.
 
Hernandez was relieved after the final buzzer.
 
“This was a very important win because we played against an extraordinary team,” he said.
 
“They played well and are well coached. We had trouble adjusting at times but the way we defended was great. I was happy that we adjusted our defense. We played intelligently and that's hard to do against a team like Russia.
 
Navarro had 15 points, Pau Gasol 13 and both Reyes and Garbajosa 11 for Spain, who are so deep and so talented that Portland Trail Blazers guard Sergio Rodriguez and Unicaja Malaga shooting guard Berni Rodriguez did not even get into the game.
 
Russia did limit the contributions of Gasol, which pleased Blatt.
 
“Most teams here would be happy to hold Pau Gasol on 13 points, so I think we did a good job defensively on him."
 
Earlier, Vasilis Spanoulis buried a three-pointer at the buzzer to lead Greece to an 81-78 defeat of Croatia in a thrilling encounter.
 
Marko Popovic tied the game at 78-78 with seven seconds remaining, only for Spanoulis, who spent last season with the Houston Rockets, to receive the ball, race up the floor before finding the basket from several feet behind the arc.
 
The victory has strengthened Greece's bid to reach the quarter-finals, earning them their third triumph in five EuroBasket games, while doing serious damage to Croatia's hopes.
 
The Croatians have now lost two games since upsetting Spain in Seville in midweek.
 
``It was in, I was sure that it was,'' said Spanoulis to PA Sport as he ran to the changing room.
 
``It was a good shot. It was a very nice game, and this is a big win for us. We shot well in the second half and we moved the ball well which is what we needed in order to get back in the game. We did the right things to clinch the win in the end.''
 
The Croatians will be kicking themselves after this setback which followed an upset loss to Israel just two days ago.
 
They ran onto the court focused and looked as if they were headed for success after opening up a 50-37 lead four minutes into the second half.
 
Greece went on a 21-4 run to go into the final stanza with a 58-54 lead, with Dimitris Diamantidis scoring 10 points in that surge.
 
A three-point play by Roko-Leni Ukic put Croatia in front at 62-61, but Lazaros Papadopoulos replied with a jump shot as Greece reclaimed the advantage.
 
Greece led 73-68 but, with 2:16 to go, Marko Tomas made a 3-pointer and was hit on the play but failed to convert the four-point shot.
 
Dimitris Diamantidis, who had eight of his game-high 23 points in the final quarter, made a three-ball with 1:24 to go for a 76-71 Greek lead and Croatia looked dead.
 
But Ukic made a lay-up to close the gap to 76-73, and after Spanoulis split two from the line, Croatia coach Jasmin Repesa called a time-out.
 
When play resumed, Popovic caught an inbounds pass at midcourt and took a few dribbles before connecting from behind the arc to make it a one-point game.
 
Diamantidis then made just one of two at the charity stripe to give the Greeks a 78-76 lead.
 
Panagiotis Yannakis, the Greece coach, elected to foul Popovic with seven seconds left instead of letting him take a potential game-winning 3-pointer.
 
Popovic made both, but then Greece got the ball to Spanoulis for the amazing finish.
 
In the first game of the day, Portugal brought Israel crashing back down to earth by winning their EuroBasket qualifying round showdown, 94-85.
 
The Israelis entered the game fresh off their upset victory over Croatia two days ago.
 
But they were soundly beaten by the Portuguese, one of the real surprise teams in this competition.
 
Joao Gomes had 23 points to pace the Portuguese.
 
Francisco Jordao scored nine points while Joao Santos and Gomes each weighed in with six as Valentyn Melnychuk's men built a 28-14 lead by the end of the first quarter.
 
Israel, getting 13 points in the second quarter from Lior Eliyahu, still trailed 46-34 at half-time.
 
But Portugal opened up a 65-48 advantage by the end of the third quarter, during which the 22-year-old Gomes soared in for a couple of ally-oop dunks.
 
With less than four minutes remaining, the Portuguese were in front at 73-59 and looked to be cruising when Santos was hit with his second unsportsmanlike foul on Guy Pniny, thus earning an ejection.
 
Pniny made both free throws and with Israel also keeping possession, Matan Naor drilled a three-pointer.
 
Suddenly, the Israelis had life.
 
But Portugal's Filipe Da Silva made a pair of free throws immediately after and he would end up making four more to help his side maintain a comfortable lead.
 
Da Silva finished with 13 points, nine assists and four rebounds.
 
``The most important thing is that we won the game, and now we will play our final qualifying game against Greece to try and get to the quarter-final,” Da Silva said.
 
Portugal out-rebounded Israel 45-25, with the outstanding Gomes pulling down 11.
 
The 6ft 6in Gomes had some NBA tryouts earlier this summer but went undrafted.
 
However, on this evidence he certainly has a big future in Europe and could eventually make it to the NBA.
 
He finished 9-of-18 (50%) from the floor and also came up with three steals.
 
Jeff Taylor and Cindy Garcia-Bennett, Madrid
FIBA