Pau Gasol of Spain posts up Sofoklis Schortsanitis of Greece. （Photo credit： Getty）Photo Gallery%26gt；%26gt；
（BEIJING， August 10） -- 2006 world champion Spain crushed Greece 81-66 in a group B match in the preliminary round of the Olympic Men's Basketball tournament on Sunday， August 10.
World No. 3 Spain's Rudy Fernandez was the game high-scorer， netting 16 points and giving one assist. His teammates Jose Manuel Calderon and superstar Pau Gasol also managed double digits， taking 13 and 11 respectively.
Vasileios Spanoulis was the high-scorer for World No. 6 Greece with 15 points， three rebounds and one assist. Dimitrios Diamantidis contributed 14 points and two rebounds.
The first half saw the two teams' scores neck-and-neck， reaching 13-12 midway through the first quarter and ending the whole ten minutes with Spain leading 20-16. Throughout the quarter， Spain could only manage a very small lead， and Greece equalized the score four times. Greece did a better job in the second quarter， but Spain still outscored Greece 15-13 to go to the half 35-29.
Spain delivered their stunning performance in the third quarter， taking 27 points while Greece only sunk 17. In a four and a half-minute span， Greece only managed to add two points while Spain gained 15 points. Though Greece made great effort to catch up， Spain kept the lead to the end of this quarter， closing 62-46. This lead was enough to carry the match， with Spain claiming the final victory 81-66.
When asked to comment on the outcome， Greece's guard Theodoros Papaloukaas acknowledged that Spain is a tough team to challenge. "We didn't come out well，" he said. "With a team like Spain， you don't play for just 20 minutes. You need to play for the whole game."
Meanwhile， Spain's players are looking ahead. Center Marc Gasol said： "It feels great. It's great to start with a win. Now， we will just have to rest up for the next games."
No comments:
Post a Comment