[InTime Sports]
Greece suffered its loss in its qualifying group of the 2025 Eurobasket on Tuesday, going down to Bosnia Herzegovina 80-77 in Limassol, but can still finish top with a win over Spain on Thursday.
Playing without Giannis Antetokounmpo, who had some minor knee injury, and Giannoulis Larentzakis, the Greeks played a great game up to the 12th minute, but then suffered a 25-minute blackout that allowed the Bosnians to lead by up to 14 points (69-55).
In the first 12 minutes, Greece outplayed its opponent with some fast basketball and good enough defense, to lead by 13 points (34-21).
At that point coach Vassilis Spanoulis made some changes that upset the team and produced an offensive shutdown, with missed shots and rebounds and with numerous turnovers. Bosnia made the most of it and scored 18 unanswered points to lead 39-34 and then 44-38 at half-time.
The next 15 minutes were practically more of the same, the nerves and some referee calls compounded the Greek misery, and it was only in the last three to four minutes that the Greeks bounced back (owing partly to Bosnians getting exhausted) and the distance was reduced – though it proved too little too late.
Spanoulis’ players paid for their 17 turnovers and 19 missed defensive rebounds. Kostas Sloukas paced them with 15 points, Tyler Dorsey made 14 and Kostas Papanikolaou 11.
Greece is now on a 3-1 record, has already made the last 16, but will try to win the group against Spain in order to have a better route in the knockout rounds that will follow.
