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France hand Italy their second loss

Tony Parker poured in 36 points on Tuesday and Group D leader France beat Italy 69-62, handing the Olympic runner-up its second loss at the European Championship.

At Granada, Serbia's Milan Gurovic heaved a three-pointer from half-court to force overtime, but Greece prevailed 68-67. Also in Group A, Russia won its second straight, dominating last-minute qualifier Israel 90-56.

Lithuania moved into the second round with a 95-75 win over Group C rival Czech Republic (0-2) before Germany (2-0) routed Turkey (0-2) 79-49 behind 24 points from Dirk Nowitzki.

Pau Gasol had 26 points and nine rebounds to lead world champion Spain over Latvia 93-77 in Sevilla, where Croatia (1-1) beat Portugal (0-2) 90-68 in another Group B game.

In the other Group D match, Slovenia (2-0) advanced with a 70-52 win over Poland.

At Alicante, Parker scored 13 of France's first 17 points and Les Bleus rallied from a 7-0 deficit to get within three to start the second quarter.

But as Parker and France quieted, Italy built its biggest lead of the game, 33-24.

After cutting the deficit to five by intermission, France opened the second half with a 6-0 run to take its first lead, 37-36 thanks to two Parker free throws after Andrea Crosario was issued a technical foul for slamming the ball into the base of the basketball pole.

Parker scored France's next 10 points to give it a 47-41 advantage that Italy closed to 51-47 with the San Antonio Spurs guard finishing the final two minutes of the third quarter on the bench.

Italy scored six straight to start the fourth, reclaiming the lead, which it traded back-and-forth until Tariq Kirksay hit a three-pointer with three minutes remaining to put France ahead for good, 63-60.

Parker added a layup and two more free throws, finishing 8-for-9 from the line to complement his 55 percent field goal shooting.

In Granada, Dimosthenis Ntikoudis' dunk gave Greece a three-point lead over Serbia with five seconds remaining before Gurovic tied it 56-56 with a second remaining as he fell out of bounds.

Ntikoudis' three-pointer put Greece ahead 68-64 with 40 seconds to go, but Milos Teodosic hit a layup 10 seconds later and sunk a free throw to complete a three-point play, pulling Serbia back within one.

After Vasileios Spanoulis missed with his jumper with three seconds left, Marko Jaric grabbed the rebound, but Lazaros Papadopoulos blocked his shot from top of the key as time expired.

Winless Serbia had to beat Israel yesterday to avoid its worst finish in 60 years.

After two consecutive dominating performances, Russia seems eager to improve on its consecutive eighth-place finishes.

US-born John Robert Holden lobbed a pass for Andrei Kirilenko to slam at 4:25 of the second period to give Russia a 32-21 lead over Israel, a double-digit advantage it kept the rest of the way.

Kirilenko converted a three moments later and Russia led by 12 at halftime.

At the Palma Arena, Lithuania shot 63 percent from the field and grabbed 34 defensive rebounds to dominate a Czech Republic team that lost to Germany in overtime on Monday.

With the score 6-6, Darjus Lavrinovic's two free throws sparked a 29-11 run as the three-time European champs broke away with Ksistof Lavrinovic adding 22 in less than 20 minutes on the floor.

Ademola Okulaja complemented Nowitzki's performance with 13 points and nine rebounds of his own.

Turkey shot 3-for-22 from beyond the arc against Germany, losing a lopsided game for the second straight night and enters its game against the Czech Republic knowing the loser will be eliminated.

At the San Pablo Municipal Stadium, Latvia and Spain exchanged the lead before Gasol put Spain up for good 29-27 with an emphatic dunk.

Jose Calderon's last-second three put Spain ahead 41-36 at halftime, and it opened the third quarter with a 15-6 run to cement its lead.

Damir Markota scored 13 and four other players reached double figures, leading Croatia over Portugal and boosting its chances for the second round.

Also in Group D, Radoslav Nesterovic of the Raptors had 11 points and 12 rebounds, while Erazem Lorbek added 16 points and Jaka Lakovic had 15 points to put Slovenia past Italy and into the second round.

An Italy loss against Poland would be the Azzurri's worst finish at the Europeans in its history.

The top-three from each four-team group advance into the second round of group play, which will decide the quarter-finals, which begin in Madrid next Thursday.
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