FIBA Europe - Tomas, Croatia stun world champions Spain

SEVILLA (EuroBasket 2007) - Marko Tomas buried a 3-pointer with 3.1 seconds remaining as Croatia stunned Spain, 85-84, to finish atop of Group B at the EuroBasket.

The win gained a measure of revenge for the Croatians, who were knocked out of EuroBasket 2005 by Spain in the quarter-finals.

The result also put Portugal into the next round, while knocking out Latvia, which beat Croatia in the first game, 85-77.

Portugal upset Latvia in the first contest on Wednesday.

"I'm really happy that we qualified for the next round with four points, that's a big advantage for us," Croatia coach Jasmin Repesa said. "But, at the same time, we have to stay quiet and go game by game because we've seen many surprises already in this championship."

On opening night, Italy stormed back from a large deficit in Group D against Slovenia and took a two-point lead on a Matteo Soragna three-ball, only for Jaka Lakovic to win the game for the Slovenians with a last-second 3-pointer.

"I believed, after the first big loss to Latvia, that we would get to Madrid," Repesa said, "but I was worried how we played then."

Croatia was behind by 10 points at half-time but returned to the court and tightened up theirdefense. Trailing, 58-50, they went on a 10-2 run to tie the contest at 60-60.

Once they were back on level terms, the Croatians looked more confident.

Leading, 71-70, Marko Banic nailed a jumper in the lane and, after Berni Rodriguez missed from the arc, Banic nailed another basket.

Pau Gasol, who had 26 points for Spain, then missed, and Croatia darted to the other end where Kus made a layup. Suddenly, Spain looked as if they were wobbling.

However, the world champions got a spark from Gasol, who dunked off a miss by Felipe Reyes to ignite an 11-0 run.

"Even in those moments, we believed in ourselves," Kus said.

After Gasol split a pair of free throws with 45 seconds left, Spain had an 84-79 lead. But Kus replied for Croatia with a 3-pointer to close the gap to just two with 33 seconds remaining.

Spain used all of the time on its next possession but did not get a good shot with Fernandez attempting a fadeaway 3-pointer with a defender all over him.

He missed everything, and though Carlos Jimenez was there for the offensive rebound, the 24-second clock expired - turning the ball over to Croatia. Repesa then called a timeout to discuss the final 10 seconds.

When play resumed, Croatia pushed the ball up the floor, and Tomas ended up with the ball in his hands several feet behind the arc.

The Real Madrid star, who had made two earlier 3-pointers, was on target to silence the crowd and leave his team in control.

Spain did not panic and called timeout to set up its last play. Fernandez had the ball behind the arc but was closely guarded.

He drove into the lane and attacked the basket, but a wall of defenders met him and denied him the game-winning shot.

Spain complained Fernandez had been fouled, but the referees blew their whistles as the buzzer sounded, and Croatia's players celebrated.

"We were thinking Rudy or Gasol would get the alley-oop pass," Kus said. "In the Euroleague this year, Rudy won a game with an alley-oop."

When asked if he thought there was contact on the last play, Spain coach Pepu Hernandez said, "No doubt about it."

But he then added that the contact was minimal and the call could have gone either way.

"Game by game, we played better," Repesa said. "In the second half, that's how we want to play. In the first half, I was upset by our defense. The guys played very well in the second half and, in my opinion, we deserved this win."

Croatia won without some of the veterans who did not make themselves available for this competition. Nikola Vujcic, Dalibor Bagaric, Gordan Giricic and Andrija Zizic all declined.

"Now our first opponent will be Israel," Repesa said. "And that was big."

As for Spain?

"Losing was a possibility because we are not invincible," Rodriguez said. "Now, we have to work at the small details to improve. In the next round, we expect to get the most number of victories."

Dirk Nowitzki carried Germany on his broad shoulders once again Wednesday, but this time the heroics of the Dallas Mavericks' superstar failed to produce a victory at EuroBasket 2007.

Nowitzki poured in 28 points and led the Germans back from a 21-point deficit but Lithuania held on for an 84-80 win in the Group C clash in Palma De Mallorca.

In the other early game, the once-proud basketball nation of Serbia crashed out of the tournament in Granada courtesy of Israel, who secured an 87-83 win.

Prior to Wednesday's defeat, Nowitzki had 35 points in Germany's overtime victory over the Czech Republic before tearing apart Turkey with 24 points.

Lithuania led by 21 points midway through the third quarter but Germany closed the gap to one point late in the game. Darius Songaila made one of two free throws for an 82-80 lead with 10 seconds remaining in regulation and then helped secure the win when he drew a charge by Ademola Okulaja.

Rimantas Kaukenas made a pair of free throws in the closing seconds to nail down the win.

Darjus Lavrinovic had 18 points and Sarunas Jasikevicius added 15 for Lithuania, the gold medalists at this event in 2003.

Serbia's loss continued a downward spiral.

The country won the European title in 2001 and followed that up with a gold medal at the 2002 FIBA World Championship. Since then, the Serbians have fallen on hard times and a coaching change hasn't changed the team's fortune.

Former coach Dragan Sakota led the team into the round of 16 at the 2006 FIBA World Championship, but the Serbian Basketball Federation decided to replace him with one of the country's basketball legends, Zoran Slavnic.

It made little difference Wednesday as Israel got 26 points from Yaniv Green and 17 from Yotam Halperin.

Serbia were led by Milan Gurovic's 19 points and Darko Milicic contributed 18 points.

Tony Parker missed a potential game-tying free throw with just two seconds remaining as unbeaten Slovenia edged France, 67-66, in a Group D thriller played in Alicante.

The reigning NBA Finals MVP with the San Antonio Spurs, Parker again led France with 25 points but the late miss ruined his night.

Parker was 7-of-15 from the floor and 10-of-14 at the free-throw line.

The surprising Slovenians head to Madrid for the next phase of the EuroBasket as Group D's winners.

Domen Lorbek and Matjaz Smodis each had 15 points for Slovenia.

Meanwhile, Latvia trailed Portugal by 17 points early in the fourth quarter, the margin the Portuguese needed to win by to overtake the Baltic country and advance to the next round.

But it had to settle for a 77-67 victory - its first of the EuroBasket.

Golden State Warriors forward Andris Biedrins had 14 points and 18 rebounds for Latvia.

Joao Santos and Mario-Gil Fernandez each scored 14 for Portugal.

Russia dented the armor of defending European champions Greece, 61-53, to storm into the next round as Group A winners.

Under the guidance of former Benetton Treviso coach David Blatt, the Russians have now won against Greece, Israel and Serbia and Andrei Kirilenko of the Utah Jazz has been their talisman.

Kirilenko did struggle shooting the ball, finishing 4-of-16 from the floor, including 0-for-3 from the 3-point arc.

But he still had 12 points and also pulled down 17 rebounds.

CSKA Moscow star JR Holden paced the Russians with 17 points.

Greece came from behind to beat Russia in their quarter-final two years ago in Belgrade.

With Russia topping the Granada group, Greece, the silver medal winners at the 2006 FIBA World Championship, settled for second and Israel third.

Turkey finally won a game in Palma, beating the Czech Republic, 80-72, to finish third behind Group C winners Lithuania and second-placed Germany.

Struggling to recapture its form of last year when it reached the quarter-finals in Japan, Turkey got 22 points from Hedo Turkoglu while Mehmet Okur scored 10 and grabbed 16 rebounds.

By Jeff Taylor
FIBA