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Spain defeats Greece to reach European final

Spain's Pau Gasol dunks against Greece during their semi-final at the European Basketball Championship in Madrid on Saturday. Spain won 82-77. PHOTO: AP

Pau Gasol scored 23 points and Jose Calderon made some big plays down the stretch as Spain beat defending champion Greece 82-77 on Saturday to reach the final of the European Basketball Championship.

After Jorge Garbajosa hit two free throws to give Spain an 80-76 lead with 18 seconds to play, Theodoros Papaloukas lost the ball as he drove the lane. Juan Carlos Navarro, who finished with 23 points, then hit two free throws at the other end.

"It was a really tough game. We all worked for this one," Calderon said. "Even the coaches had to play hard in this game. It was a war."

Calderon stole from Dimitrios Diamantidis with 1:47 to play and made the subsequent layup to push Spain out 74-68, moments after Gasol's two-handed dunk in front of a capacity crowd of 15,500.

Calderon knocked down two free throws to make it 76-70 moments later.

Three-pointers from Nikolaos Zisis and Panagiotis Vasilopoulos kept Greece close in the final minute.

"It was very difficult for both teams tonight," Greece forward Konstantinos Tsartsaris said. "We were tired from last night's game."

Vassilis Spanoulis led Greece with 24 points and five assists.

Later on Saturday, Lithuania was scheduled to play Russia.

In a tense ending to the third quarter, both benches cleared as Navarro and Diamantidis jawed at each other with Greece ahead 60-59.

After Navarro hit a 3-pointer, Gasol blocked Lazaros Papaloukas -- one of two blocks to start the fourth -- as Spain pushed out 64-60.

Diamantidis tied it at 65 nearly midway through the last period and Papadopoulos' subsequent layup at 5:17 gave Greece its last lead.

Earlier, Dirk Nowitzki, who finished with 26 points and 10 rebounds, hit a clutch basket with 12 seconds to play as Germany rallied for a 69-65 win over Slovenia, a win that gave the Germans a chance to qualify for the Beijing Olympics.

Croatia also earned a place in a pre-Olympic qualifying tournament with an 86-69 win over France.
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