GRE/CRO – Greece overpower Croatia; Yannakis trims roster to fourteen

ATHENS (FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men) - Greece won for the fifth time in as many friendlies this summer by defeating Croatia 77-65 on Wednesday in a game between two sides warming up for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

Dimitris Diamantidis, who sat out Tuesday’s victory over Australia, returned to the line-up and scored 14 points to lead the Greeks – the hosts of next week’s qualifying event.

Nikos Zisis had 13 points, Vasilis Spanoulis 12 and Antonis Fotsis 10 for the winners.

After the game, Greece coach Panagiotis Yannakis revealed he had made some decisions about the roster.

“Today, I told Ian Vouyoukas and Yannis Kalambokis that they will not be in the final squad and thanked them for their contributions,” Yannakis said.

"(Vasilis) Xanthopoulos will stay to help us in practice and gain some more experience.

“The other 14 players will be with the team until before we hopefully leave for Beijing.

“Even our 12th player has to be someone who will be able to provide some quality minutes whenever needed.”

Greece won the Supercup in Bamberg, defeating Slovenia and Puerto Rico, and swept the Acropolis Tournament with wins over Brazil, Australia and on Wednesday, Croatia.

They have been playing like a team that will claim one of the three spots available for the Beijing Games at the qualifying tournament in Athens.

“Tonight we had the opportunity to split playing time and managed to control the score,” Yannakis said.

“Despite not controlling the tempo in some cases, we reacted well in terms of mentality and did a good job against a team with big bodies.”

Croatia led early on, 9-3 and 18-15, and held their last advantage at 20-19 after two Damir Markota free throws.

Andreas Gliniadakis made two from the charity stripe and followed that up with a basket to put the Greeks on top for good.

Antonis Fotsis fired in from beyond the arc for a 32-26 lead and while dominating the boards, Greece opened up a 40-30 advantage late in the first half.

The closest Croatia would get the rest of the way was seven points early in the third quarter.

“Congratulations to the Greek team for their win,” Croatia coach Jasmin Repesa said.

“We played better compared to the previous games, but not so much better in order to beat Greece.

“We made many unforced turnovers and gave Greece the opportunity to make some easy baskets.

“Now we have five days ahead of us to get prepared for the start of the Olympic Qualifying Tournament and hopefully have our injured players back.

“(Zoran) Planinic will return to practice tomorrow (Thursday) and we will check out his condition to determine whether or not he is in a state to be in the team on Monday.”

Markota led the Croatians with 11 points with Marko Popovic scoring seven and handing out nine assists.

Roko-Leni Ukic also had 10 points.

“Thanks to the Hellenic Basketball Federation for this wonderful tournament,” Repesa said. “We wish the Greek team good luck in the Olympic qualifying tournament.”

FIBA