Greece won the European Championship basketball title for the second time Sunday when it beat Germany 78-62 behind 22 points by Theodoros Papaloukas.
The Greek defense frustrated Dirk Nowitzki, the tournament's MVP and top scorer, who scored 23 points but went only 1-for-8 from the 3-point range. He had nine rebounds but also four turnovers.
Greece won its first title at home in 1987 and this time it must have felt like playing at the Olympic Hall in Maroussi.
PHOTO: AP
Seven planeloads of Greek fans arrived Sunday to join those already in the Serbian capital and the full 20,000-seat Belgrade Arena was awash in blue-and-white Greek colors. After the final buzzer, the winners broke into a "Zorba the Greek" dance.
"It was a dream final for us, we showed a great team spirit and tonight I don't think that any team in Europe could have beaten us," said Papaloukas, whose team did not include any NBA players.
The game was decided in the third quarter when Greece went hot from 3-point range, making three straight at the start of the period, two of them by Papaloukas.
When Papaloukas hit another with 1:53 left in the third, Greece had a 17-point lead and the game was all but over.
Nowitzki, who had carried Germany virtually single-handedly to the final, left the game with 3:22 remaining to a standing ovation.
"We are happy with what we achieved. Greece was simply the better team," Nowitzki said.
When the Dallas Mavericks star was presented at the medal ceremony, the crowd chanted his name and gave him another ovation. He finished the tournament averaging 26.1 points.
Germany won its first medal since claiming the title at home in 1993.
"They were just a step quicker," said Germany coach Dirk Bauermann.
Center Patrick Femerling added 11 points for Germany.
Greece made seven of 21 3-point attempts while Germany went 3-for-16.
Nikolaos Zisis had 13 points for Greece and Michail Kakiouzis added 11.
"We played our best game in the tournament. Now I am on top of Europe, not as a player but as coach," said Greece coach Panagiotis Yannakis, who played on the 1987 team.
Earlier, Tony Parker scored 25 points to lift France to a 98-68 victory over Spain in the bronze-medal game, giving France its first medal at the European Championship since a silver in 1959.
Parker, the point guard for the NBA champion San Antonio Spurs, ran into the stands after the game to celebrate with about two dozen singing French fans.
Mickael Pietrus of the Golden State Warriors added 23 points for France, which dominated the boards, getting 41 rebounds compared to 25 for Spain.
Juan Carlos Navarro had 17 points for Spain.
celebrations
Thousands of Greeks poured into the streets of Athens to celebrate their country's championship.
Fans paraded down major Athens avenues draped in Greek flags while car horns blared and fireworks lit up the night sky.
Most gathered at central Omonia Square, the usual gathering place for sport-related celebrations. They formed long lines of traffic swamped in a sea of blue and white, the color of the Greek flag.
In Thessaloniki, thousands gathered at the White Tower, and at the central Aristotelous Square, fans watched the match on a giant television screen.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was