Giannis-less Greece makes EuroBasket KO stage
MILAN: Giannis Antetokounmpo got the day off. Greece rolled into the knockout stage of the EuroBasket tournament without him.
Kosta Sloukas scored 21 points, Georgios Papagiannis added 17 and Greece pulled away in the second half to top Great Britain 93-77 in a Group C matchup on Monday (Tuesday in Manila).
Antetokounmpo is expected to play in at least one of Greece’s final two group-stage games, the first coming Tuesday against Ukraine. The knockout round in Berlin starts on Saturday.
“He’s available and he will play tomorrow,” Greece coach Dimitris Itoudis said after Monday’s game. “He had a discomfort a little bit on his knee, nothing major . ... We did not want to risk anything so we decided not to dress him up today.”
Kostas Papanikolaou and Michail Lountzis each had 10 points for Greece, which is now assured of a top-four place in the group. There are four groups with six teams in each at EuroBasket, with the top four finishers in each group headed to the knockout stage.
Luke Nelson had 17 points for Great Britain (0-3), while Myles Hesson scored 13, Ovie Soko added 12 and Dan Clark finished with 11.
Greece used a 16-0 run to erase an early seven-point deficit. Great Britain closed within 53-52 in the third quarter, but Greece scored 40 of the game’s final 65 points.
Also at Milan, Ukraine is going on to Berlin for the knockout round.
Svi Mykhailiuk scored 25 points, Ivan Tkachenko and Issuf Sanon each scored 17 and Ukraine (3-0) remained perfect by topping Italy, 84-73.
Achille Polonara led Italy (1-2) with 17 points. Simone Fontecchio scored 14 points and Marco Spissu added 11.
Meanwhile, Karlo Matkovic scored 17 points on 8-for-8 shooting, Dario Saric added 15 points and 12 rebounds and Croatia held off winless Estonia, 73-70.
Jaleen Smith scored 13 points for Croatia (2-1).
Siim-Sander Vene had 18 points for Estonia (0-3), while MalikKalev Kotsar added 17 and Kristian Kullamae added 14.
At Prague, Nikola Jokic scored 13 points and Serbia (3-0) had six players in double figures as it clinched a berth in the knockout round with a 100-70 victory over Finland.
Nemanja Nedovic and Vasilije Micic had team-high totals of 14 points for Serbia, while Nikola Kalinic scored 13, Vladimir Lucic had 12 and Marko Guduric finished with 11.
Lauri Markkanen scored 18 points for Finland (1-2), which got 10 apiece from Edon Maxhuni and Elias Valtonen.
A.J. Slaughter scored 24 points, Aleksander Balcerowski added 17 and Poland led most of the way to hand Israel its first loss via an 85-76 decision.
Aaron Cel scored 13 and Mateusz Ponitka finished with 11 points, nine rebounds and seven assists for Poland (2-1).
Yovel Zoosman scored 18 for Israel (2-1), which got 17 from Yam Madar and 10 from Tamir Blatt.