The experience of Antonis Fotsis and Nikos Zisis as well as the genius of Nick Calathes were enough to carry Greece through to the next round of the European Championship in Lithuania through a 74-69 win over Croatia on Monday.
Greece will now enter the second round which means another round-robin pool with three teams from another first-round group. The Greeks will carry one win and one loss with them to the next round, after finishing the group with four wins in five matches. Among Greece's next opponents will be Russia and Slovenia.
In Monday's game, Greece's last in the first round, the national team had a great first half in which they stifled the Croatian attacks and enjoyed a high scoring rate, to stretch their lead as far as 20 points (43-23), with the first half ending 44-27.
Yet when the score was at 47-27 at the start of the third period the Croats tightened up their defence and made a decent effort to reduce their arrears, which proved successful.
They went on to get to within two points, but some crucial points by Fotsis and Zisis when it really mattered gave Greece a precious win, without which they could have been eliminated.
Greece still had a problem with their two-point shots (ending the game with just a 36 percent rate), but their three-pointers were improved (at 35 percent) from previous games and exceeded 70 points once again.
Fotsis and Costas Vassiliadis led the scoring for the Greeks with 17 points each, while Calathes scored nine points and collected eight rebounds.
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