EuroBasket Recap: Greece 75, Italy 66

Greece began its EuroBasket campaign in style with a win over Italy. Greece was led by Giannis, who dropped 31 points and seven assists on 14/20 from the field. Nicolo Melli led Italy with 15 points, five assists, and seven rebounds.

Game Recap

Greece’s first quarter really won them the game, jumping out to a 22-12 advantage after one. Giannis got going with a ridiculous dunk stretching from one side of the lane to the other, followed by a downhill attack and finish at the rim over the defence’s outstretched hands. Nicolo Melli chipped in for the Italians with a quick rip to the hoop, but Giannis was too much of a presence, towering over the helpless defence with another dunk.

Italy got back into the game in the second, outscoring Greece 20-14. It was one-time Buck Danilo Gallinari who got going in the second, dropping five early points in the quarter. Then, Melli and Alessandro Pajola got in on the act as the Greeks struggled to fire, only up 36-32 at half.

Giannis got Greece off to a better start in the third as he tricked the defence into thinking he would shoot the left-wing fadeaway, only to pass it at the last second for a Kostas Sloukas triple at the end of the shot clock. Then, Kostas Antetokounmpo ignited a beautiful sequence with the chase-down block, resulting in a Giannis catch and dunk down the other end. Italy’s Saliou Niang had an impressive dunk over the Greek defence as he slipped the screen and jammed it home, but Greece still controlled the game with a 56-45 lead after three.

Vassilis Toliopoulos kicked Greece off in the fourth with a huge step-back triple, before coming back a few minutes later with a nice alley-oop to Giannis. Italy would stage a valiant comeback, reducing their deficit to just five with 49 seconds left, but Greece ran a beautiful ATO to get Giannis an open dunk and end the game on top.