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Greece start tournament with win

New Zealand’s Vukona, right, fights for the ball with Cape Verde’s Gomez, left, during their FIBA Olympic qualifying tournament game at the Olympic Indoor stadium in Athens on Monday. PHOTO: EPA

Kostas Tsartsaris scored 15 points to lead five other teammates in double figures and pace Greece to a 119-62 victory over Lebanon on Monday — the first day of the final qualifying tournament for the Beijing Olympics.

Slovenia, Croatia and New Zealand also won in the 12-nation event that will send the final three teams to China.

Slovenia downed South Korea 88-76, New Zealand beat Cape Verde 77-50 and Croatia defeated Cameroon 93-79. The remaining teams in the tournament: Brazil, Canada, Germany and Puerto Rico, were to play their first games yesterday.

Despite often being criticized for slow starts, Greece pressed from the opening tip and jumped out to a 21-6 lead after seven minutes.

Shooting 79 percent from the floor in the second half — and 73 percent for the game — Greece extended its lead to 86-41 by the end of the third quarter.

Lebanon was held to 41 percent shooting, 32 percent on three-point attempts.

Earlier, Marko Tomas scored 22 points to lead Croatia over Cameroon in Group D.

Croatia opened the second quarter with a 16-2 run that turned a three-point lead into a 35-18 advantage. Cameroon never got closer than nine points the rest of the way.

In the other games, US-born Jeff Xavier scored 22 points for Cape Verde, but the Africans trailed 21-4 after the first quarter and were overwhelmed by New Zealand.

“There is a big difference in quality between the two teams,” Cape Verde coach Eric Silva said.
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