Greek hoopsters scraped through the Spanish challenge on Monday in Athens to win by two in overtime and remain in the battle for a place in next year’s World Cup finals.
Playing in front of a capacity crowd of 20,000 supporters at the T-Center, Greece won 108-106 to record its fourth win in eight games and stay in with a chance to qualify.
Having lost to Ukraine last Friday (82-76), Greece played with its collective back on the wall.
The players of coach Vassilis Spanoulis led for most of the game, but blew a 12-point lead (72-60) against a combative Spain, that managed to send the game to overtime (86-86) right the end of regulation time with a triple by Juancho Hernangomez, as the home team failed to make a useful foul in the process.
In the extra five minutes, the hosts managed this time to hold on to their lead and win the game in the end through consistent free-throw shooting, despite trailing 46-31 in rebounds.
Dinos Mitoglou and Tyler Dorsey scored 29 points each for Greece.
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