By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
In the first half Great Britain gave Spain a little scare as the score after 20 minutes of play was tied at 35. However, the best team prevailed and after Wednesday the reigning European champions remain the only unbeaten team in preparation games for the upcoming Eurobasket. Spain got the 80-67 win with the top scorer being Ricky Rubio (14 p.).
In Greece, the hosts of “Acropolis tournament” beat Lithuania 80-62. It was the first defeat of coach Kazlauskas’ team in the preparation games and a career night for Greek forward Giorgos Printezis who scored 23 points, his best ever offensive effort in the national team. In the second game of the day in Athens, Italy got the 73-62 win over Bosnia as Detroit’s Gigi Datome returned to action and Nets’ Mirza Teletovic was held to 10 points. The bad news for the Italians are that an other forward, Stefano Mancinelli, who was injured on Tuesday, in the first game of the tournament, is expected to miss Eurobasket.
Russia got the win over Ukraine (86-70) behind 23 points by Minessota’s Alexey Shved and 17 points by CSKA’s Vitaly Fridzon. Also, Belgium beat Czech Republic 72-59, proving that it has a fighting chance in the upcoming tournament, despite probably missing naturalized swingman Mat Lojeski due to a small muscle tear in the upper leg and Latvia beat Finland in Helsinki 90-84. The closest game of the night was won by Israel over Georgia (77-75) as point guard Yogev Ohayon scored 20 points.