Greece over thralled New Zealand, 83-74, to claim the last ticket to the Second Round from Group C in the 2023 FIBA World Cup, played at the Mall of Asia Arena, Phillipines, on Wednesday night.
The intense battle between Greece and the ‘Tall Blacks’ New Zealand, bought the final score to 83-74 (15-20, 17-23, 18-11, 33-20) but it was not without a fight.
New Zealand played the first half well, up by 11 points in the first 20 minutes of the game, reported Basket News.
Greece struggled to keep up with the pace of New Zealand, however this drastically changed in the second half.
Ioannis Papapetrou and Giannoulis Larentzakis delivered taking on the offensive load while New Zealand’s offence stagnated.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo provided the necessary spark, as the Greek team climbed out of a 15-point deficit to victory.
Greek fans came in numbers to witness an outstanding effort from both teams.
Coach Itoudis said in an interview with FIBA media, “We’re not a team that’s going to have a lot of isolations, we need to dig deep into the shot clock, running that ball, and we have seen in the friendly games that we can play team ball, that we can share the ball, we have had 23 assists, 19 assists.”
“This is who we are. And our identity on the defensive end, it gives us a lot. You get a boost from a good defensive stop.”
The outstanding performance by Greece, brings them to second place in the group behind Team USA.
Source: FIBA and Basket News
