With his… aura Vasilis Spanoulis and the Dino Mitoglou, Kostas Papanikolaou and Thomas Walkup in the role of “three bodyguards”, h Hellas entered the EuroBasket 2025 qualifiers and its new era with the right hand!
In a packed Stadium of Peace and Friendship with more than 12,400 friends of the “blue and white”, our national team defeated Czech Republic with a score of 72-64 and ideally started her journey to the finals of the European championship!
Top scorer for our representative group, who at times played excellent defense, staying low in the score due to the poor percentage behind 6.75m. (4/25tr.), was o Dinos Mitoglou, with Panathinaikos forward AKTOR setting a career high with the national emblem, finishing the match with 22 points and 7 rebounds!
The leader was also excellent, Kostas Papanikolaou, with 16 points and 8 rebounds, as, of course, Thomas Walkup who reached the triple-double with 16 points, 8 assists, the same number of rebounds, but also 5 steals! Kombikos in the fourth period was also Charalambopoulos with 5 points and 4 offensive rebounds!
The match:
In his first five in our National team, o Vasilis Spanoulis he chose Walkap, Rogavopoulos, Papanikolaou, Mitoglou and Papagianni. Some stress of the premiere, some “must” in the “hot” atmosphere of the SEF, Greece entered the game sluggishly and misguidedly, with the Czech Republic leading 5-0 in the first two minutes. With Mitoglou, Papanikolaou and Papagianni “hitting” the racket, the “blue and white” went ahead (6-5), with the first two a little later making +4 for 12-8 in 6′!
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Greece, however, was extremely misplaced behind 6.75m. (0/9 sq. per quarter), as a result of which he not only remained scoreless in the last 4 minutes of the period, but also found himself back in the score with 15-12 which was also the score of the first quarter.
With Balvin and Satoransky finding their way to the Greek basket, the Czechs went into the match for the first time at +7 (12-19) at 12′ and at 14-21 a little later. Somewhere there came an outbreak of Greece, with their leaders Walkup, Papanikolaou and Mitoglou on defense and offense, ran a 7-0 run for 21-21 at 14′!
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Since then, the match went “one for you and one for me”, with him Dino Mitoglou to score the first Greek three-pointer in the match at 17′ for 29-27, after ten misses! In fact, the forward of Panathinaikos AKTOR was the one who sent Greece to the locker room in front of N minimum value of difference (32-31)with him reaching 14 points and 6 rebounds in the first 20 minutes!
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The scenery is completely different third quarter, where the “decibels” rose on the floor and platform, with both teams playing more efficiently and clearly more aggressively. The beginning was made by the Czech Republic, which in the first two minutes of the period hit 3 three pointers (he had just 2 in the first half), bringing the difference to +7 for the 40-33. Despite the “numb” start, the “official favorite” turned up the gears in defense and gained the required energy, resulting in easy points in the surprise. Somehow, with Walkap, Papanikolaou, and Papagianni’s three-pointer, Greece went ahead with 41-40 at 24′.
The defense continued to score in transition, with Mitoglou, for his part, continuing his first-half high-flying streak. Somehow, Vassilis Spanoulis’ total went to +5 for 53-48 with an impressive dunk by Kostas Antetokounmpo, before the visitors reduced in the final for the 53-50 of the quarter.
At its beginnings fourth and last periodGreece found an unexpected and new protagonist in its game, in his person Vassilis Charalambopoulos. The forward of Dynamo Sassari brought out tremendous energy in the game, helping incredibly in the offensive rebound with 4 offensive rebounds (!), a steal in the defense, but also five collected points in the first six minutes of the period, leading together with Walkap our National Team at +7 for 63-56!
The… water had already entered the groove, with our National Team treading on it “turbo” and Papanikolaou and Wokapp pushing the difference even to +13 (69-56), before the Czechs gnawed away at the score in the final, with Greece celebrating the pink match sheet with final 72-64!
The quarters: 12-15, 32-31, 53-50, 72-64.
See here the statistics of the match.
Source: Sport Fm
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