GRE - Poland prepares for another Greek drama

ATHENS (EuroBasket Women) - The Greece women have not been setting the basketball world on fire with their performances of late but warm-up games are just that.

They won't count in the standings when the EuroBasket Women tips off this week in Poland.

Kostas Missas, who has just announced his 12-strong squad for the Final Round, has eight players that competed in 2009 that clinched a best-ever fifth-place finish to earn a debut appearance at the FIBA World Championship for Women.

One of the veterans in the side, center Pelagia Papamichail, said to FIBA.com: "We know each other well.

"We know how to play together and how to pull each other to give more and more in every game.

"The main body of this team has been together for the last five years and the new girls added to this team were quickly absorbed into it.

"So the spirit of this team is to fight and even though we have main physical disadvantages compared to other teams, we remain a tough and packed team!

"But of course, we have to show this on the court.

"And then success will come on its own."

Evina Maltsi, the MVP of the Final Round two years ago in Latvia, has been in good and is included with seven others that played in Latvia.

They are Dimitra Kalentzou, Zoi Dimitrakou, Styliani Kaltsidou, Pelagia Papamichail, Aikaterina Sotiriou, Olga Chatzinikolaou and Evdokia Stamati.

Artemis Spanou, who didn't play in Riga but was in last year's squad for the FIBA World Championship for Women in the Czech Republic, is included.

Anna Spyridopoulou, Thalia Kasapoglou and Emmanouela Androulaki are the other three players headed to Katowice, where Greece will take on Latvia, Croatia and France in the First Round.

Canadian-born May Kotsopoulos, a former standout point guard at the University of Vermont in American college basketball, was contending for a spot on the roster after her rookie season in Greece's top flight but suffered a thumb injury and has missed out.

FIBA