Greece 73, France 56
AFP, SAITAMA, Japan
European champion Greece broke away in the second half for a 73-56 quarter-final win over France yesterday, sustaining hope for a first-ever global medal.
Lazaros Papadopoulos and Antonis Fotsis, both big men at the Russian club Dynamo Moscow, led the Greek scoring with 14 points each while Real Madrid forward Mickael Gelabale hit 12 to pace France.
"We put our rhythm in the game from the beginning," Greek point guard Dimitris Diamatidis said. "We forced them to make some turnovers. We scored whenever we needed to."
Greece, which finished a best of fourth at the worlds in 1998 and 1994 and has no Olympic medal to its name, advanced to a semi-final tomorrow against the US.
"We controlled the game and played the way we have done to win," Greece coach Panagiotis Yannakis said after his team's seventh straight victory in the tournament.
France fought without starting point guard Tony Parker of the NBA's San Antonio Spurs. Parker pulled out with a broken finger days before the championship.
"Greece was such a strong team. I don't know if Tony Parker could have helped us in this case," France coach Claude Bergeaud said.
Greece beat France in last year's European semi-finals.
Both sides lacked shooting precision, missing a total of nine shots before Gelabale opening the book with a lay-up in the third minute.
Greece led 12-8 in the first quarter as they went 2-for-7 in both two-point and three-point attempts.
Greek "man mountain" center Sofoklis Schortsanitis, nicknamed "Baby Shaq," sank five free throws and Fotsis hit the basket with an open shot and a free throw as Greece stretched its lead in the second period.
The Greeks finished the first half ahead 34-24 with a buzzer-beating long shot by Diamatidis from the right wing.
The two sides went tit-for-tat for a 19-19 run in the third quarter with Boris Diaw, a swingman with the NBA Phoenix Suns, scoring two free throws and a 3-pointer to bring France back from a 48-33 deficit.
With a 53-43 lead going into the final period, Greece pulled away with Vassilis Spanoulis hitting two two-point shots and a 3-pointer.
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