GRE - Greece prevail against Croatia in Acropolis event
ATHENS (FIBA World Championship) - Lazaros Papadopoulos had 16 points and Michail Kakiouzis scored 10 as Greece destroyed Croatia 79-54 on the opening night of the Acropolis Tournament. Panagiotis Yannakis' team, the EuroBasket champions are gearing up for a difficult Group C campaign at the FIBA World Championship in Japan.
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ATHENS (FIBA World Championship) - Lazaros Papadopoulos had 16 points and Michail Kakiouzis scored 10 as Greece destroyed Croatia 79-54 on the opening night of the Acropolis Tournament.
Panagiotis Yannakis' team, the EuroBasket champions who are gearing up for a difficult Group C campaign at the FIBA World Championship in Japan, were knotted at 12-12 before Croatia coach Jasmin Repesa started making changes to his line-up.
The Greek defense tightened as Croatia lost their rhythm and went nearly five minutes without a basket.
Greece led 19-12 at the end of the first quarter and over the next 10 minutes took a firm grip on the game with a 44-25 advantage at half-time.
They still had a stranglehold on the game by the end of the third quarter with a 59-37 lead and cruised home over the last 10 minutes.
For Croatia, who are playing in EuroBasket qualifying games later this year, Zoran Planinic had 11 points and both Mario Kasun and Damir Miljkovic scored 10.
Greece face Italy on Tuesday evening before wrapping up their tournament on Wednesday against France.
Italy are in Group D of the FIBA World Championship while France are in Group A.
By PA Sport
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