Despite a shock defeat by Finland on Monday (77-86), which cast doubts over the Greek players’ resolve, Greece managed to end 15 years of “bad luck” last night by defeating Spain (79-75), the reigning European champions.
Andrea Trinchieri’s team faced problems against the star-studded Spanish side early on the game and was trailing 10 points behind in the first quarter. Spanoulis and co made an impressive comeback in the second quarter, indicating that the game was far from over.
The second half of the game was highly entertaining for the 3,000 or so fans, as there were many changes in the score, with passion running high on both sides. With Spain building a five-point lead in the third quarter, the Greek side made one final push in the final quarter and ultimately subdued the Spanish resistance.
For the Greek side Vasilis Spanoulis scored 20 points, while Kaimakoglou and Printezis collected 5 rebounds each. From Spain Rudy Fernández and Marc Gasol scored 20 points each, while Victor Claver collected 11 rebounds.
Greece had been unable to defeat Spain in the final phase of any major competition (Olympics, EuroBasket and World Cup) since the FIBA World Cup of 1998 in Athens.
The second phase of the Group stage will see Greece face competition hosts Slovenia on Saturday the 14th of September and Croatia on Monday the 16th of September.
