Clutch Giannis leads Greece past Czech Republic to EuroBasket quarterfinals / News - Basketnews.com

Giannis Antetokounmpo delivered when it mattered the most by hitting two clutch three-pointers which paved the way for Greece's hard-fought W over the Czech Republic.

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

Despite being four points down before the last quarter, Greece managed to avoid early elimination in the EuroBasket playoffs. Dimitris Itoudis' men defeated the tough Czech Republic, 94-88 (20-20, 21-25, 22-22, 31-21).

Player of the Game EFF 29 Giannis Antetokounmpo Points 27 Accuracy 8-17 Rebounds 10 Assists 5

Greece will play against the host country, Germany, in the quarterfinals.

Ioannis Papapetrou fired up Greece for a 6-0 run at the start of the fourth quarter and game favorites were in front again (69-67). Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kostas Sloukas, and Giannoulis Larentzakis extended Greece's spurt to 15-3 and gave an 8-point advantage (78-70) with 5 minutes to play.

Although Ondrej Balvin cut the Czechs' deficit to 5 points (78-83), Giannis Antetokounmpo made his first three-pointer after six misses, Giannoulis Larentzakis added a two-pointer, and Greece was leading in double-digits (88-78).

Nevertheless, it's a widely known fact the Czech Republic never gives up. Jan Vesely converted a 2+1 play, cut the deficit to 5 points once more (83-88), but Jaromir Bohacik missed a crucial shot. Meanwhile, Giannis closed the game with a three-pointer on the other end (91-83) with 30 seconds to go.

Giannis dropped 27 points (6/9 2PT, 2/8 3PT, 9/12 FT), 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 block, and 30 EFF.

Tomas Satoransky set a new assist record in EuroBasket history with 17 dimes. The previous one (15 assists) belonged to him as well. Satorasnky added 3 points, 8 rebounds, and 22 EFF to his performance over 32.5 minutes.

It seemed that Greece will dominate from the start of the match until the very end but that was not the case. Greece started the game with a 16-6 push but the Czech Republic was not ready to gift their opponents an easy win. The Czechs responded immediately with a 12-0 run (18-16) that began the neck-on-neck scenario.

The match went close until halftime with the Czech Republic being up by four (45-41). Giannis Antetokounmpo was stopped and had only 4 points after 20 playing minutes.

The same kind of trend continued in the third quarter. Tomas Kyzlink drained a last-second three-pointer and the Czechs had plus four (67-63) going into the last 10 minutes of the game.

Greece: Giannis Antetokounmpo 27 (10 REB, 5 AST), Nick Calathes 14 (5 REB, 6 AST), Ioannis Papetrou 13, Kostas Sloukas 10.

Czech Republic: Jan Vesely 21, Vojtech Hruban 17, Patrik Auda 12, Ondrej Balvin 12 (7 REB), Jaromir Bohacik 11.

Giannis' performance:

Game highlights:

Thank you for reading us! We have even more content for you.