Greece win four-nation warm-up tournament, announce final squad for EuroBasket 2015

ATHENS ( EuroBasket 2015) - Greece on Sunday night announced their final squad for EuroBasket 2015 following their 80-65 win over Russia in the game for first place in a four-nation warm-up tournament they hosted in Xanthi.

Head coach Fotis Katsikaris opted for an experienced-packed roster as his two final cuts were Vlantimir Giankovits and Dimitris Agravanis, two players with a superb youth national team track record who have nonetheless never played in a major tournament at senior level.

Giankovits, a 25-year-old sharp-shooter who's won U20 and U18 European titles and finished runner-up at the U19 World Championship, has been included in the senior Greek preliminary team every summer during the past three years but faces intense competition at his position.

Agravanis on the other hand, who is a 21-year-old power forward, received a call-up to the senior national team for the first time in his career but picked up a minor injury during preparations which dented his chances of making the 12-man squad.

Last week, Katsikaris had released Zisis Sarikopoulos from EuroBasket preparations training camp as he decided to rely exclusively on the duo of Kostas Koufos and Yannis Bourousis at the center spot.

The two big men are two of the eight players on the EuroBasket 2015 Greek roster that were members of the team which finished third at EuroBasket 2009, under coach Jonas Kazlauskas.

Bourouris, together with national team captain Nikos Zisis and superstar Vasilis Spanoulis were also on the last Greek team to be proclaimed European champions, at EuroBasket 2005.

Greece final roster for EuroBasket 2015: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Yannis Bourousis, Nick Calathes, Kostas Kaimakoglou, Kostas Koufos, Evangelos Mantzaris, Kostas Papanikolaou, Stratos Perperoglou, Georgios Printezis, Kostas Sloukas, Vasilis Spanoulis, Nikos Zisis.

Greece used all 12 of these players on Sunday against Russia, which started off very looking solid on defence and led their hosts 18-17 at the end of the opening quarter.

Once Greece established a strong presence in the paint and dominated on the glass they grabbed the upper hand and Printezis with a lay-up gave them their biggest lead in the first half, 37-30, with one minute remaining to half-time.

Semen Antonov however had the hot hand on Sunday and knocked down consecutive triples to give Russia the lead once again, 42-41, with 6:40 left to play in the third period.

Zisis and Sloukas however hit one jumper each to lift Greece to a 56-52 lead shortly before the third buzzer and the former sunk a three-pointer at the start of the fourth to spark a 7-0 run and give the hosts a 63-54 cushion with eight minutes on the clock.

Russia did not have any more gas left in the tank and the Greeks held on the rest of the way to secure the 80-65 win and claim their third success in as many games in Xanthi.

Bourousis and Printezis paced the winners with 16 points each and Koufos picked up a double-double of 14 points and 11 rebounds.

For Russia, Antonov finished with a game-high 27 points while Andrey Zubkov added 10 points in a losing effort.

"We played three good games and the third one, against Russia, was the toughest one," said Katsikaris.

"Our bigs combined for 46 points against the Russian zone defence and we took very few three-pointers, while we also limited turnovers.

"We are finding our roles on the team, we have found balance between the inside and the perimetre game and the team starts functioning as we want it to do."

In the game for third place in the warm-up tournament in Xanthi, Czech Republic out-scored Bosnia and Herzegovina 98-93.

Tomas Satoransky led the Czechs with 22 points, Jiri Welsch added 15 while Patrik Auda finished with 11 points.

Andrija Stipanovic collected a game-high 24 points and Marko Sutalo had 14 for Bosnia and Herzegovina in defeat.

At EuroBasket 2015, Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as Russia will play in Group A in Montpellier, Greece will compete in Group C in Zagreb while the Czech Republic will do battle in Group D in Riga.

Go to eurobasket2015.org for complete coverage of EuroBasket 2015.

FIBA