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Slovenia Dampens Greek Eurobasket Hopes

grsloveniaGreece, ranked fourth in the world coming into the Eurobasket 2013 championships, finds itself edging toward an exit after falling to host Slovenia, 73-65, needing an unlikely series of circumstances to hope it still has a chance at the title.
Greece, ranked behind only the U.S., Spain and Argentina in world standings despite failing to qualify for the 2012 Olympics in London, won its first three games of the tourney but then lost to Italy and Finland before upsetting European champion Spain.
That allowed the Greeks to advance to meet Slovenia, who put on a crushing display of offense to lead by 26 points at one time before quelling a late comeback. The only chance Greece has to advance now is by beating Croatia and hoping that Italy can beat Spain or the games are over for the Greeks.
Greece scored 31 points in the final 12 minutes against 34 in the first 28 but it proved too little too late for coach Andrea Trinchieri’s team that was touted to do well. Croatia beat beat Italy 76-68 to clinch its place in the quarterfinals.
Goran Dragic scored Slovenia’a first 11 points, before his younger brother Dragan scored the next four to set the tone for the game. Goran Dragic’s impact was huge, at both ends of the court. After making one free throw, the NBA player grabbed an offensive rebound and dished out an assist for Nebojsa Joskimovic’s 3-pointer that put Slovenia up by 20 early in the third quarter.
The lead quickly grew to 26, and Greece suffered even worse when forward Kosta Papanikolaou limped off with an ankle injury midway through the quarter. “It’s a very bad ankle sprain,” Trinchieri said. “We came back with desire and passion in the second half but we missed the chance to close within three and that was that.”
While Goran Dragic had a rest in the fourth, Slovenia’s lead melted to six by the time he returned. He stole the ball and put in a layup — his only points in the fourth quarter — to make it 70-62. Greece missed three straight 3-point attempts and Jaka Lakovic made three of four free throws to keep Slovenia ahead.
Goran Dragic also had five rebounds and four assists, while his brother added 11 points. “We had a huge lead but it wasn’t over,” Goran Dragic said. “We knew they don’t like to play fast, especially in the first two quarters. The key was our rebounding.”
Slovenia coach Boza Maljkovic said his team’s 21 offensive rebounds made the difference. “We played well for 26 minutes, then we went down and I didn’t like it.” Spanoulis led Greece with 21 and eight rebounds.
Greece put in a titanic late effort to cut the Slovenia lead to six points, 68-62, when Mirza Begic intercepted a Spanoulis pass and Goran Dragic darted down the court to finish at the rim and give Slovenia a 70-62 cushion with just 41 seconds left on the clock.

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