Greece handles China in worlds opener
August 29th, 2010 Posted in NBA basketball newsCBSSports.com Nikolaos Zisis and Ioannis Bourousis both scored 21 points to lead Greece to an 89-81 victory over China in the opening Group C game at the world basketball championship on Saturday.
Greece led 47-37 at halftime, but China, playing without Houston Rockets center Yao Ming who is recovering from surgery on his left foot, got within 81-79 before Greece retook control in the final minutes.
Yi Jianlian of the Washington Wizards had 26 points to lead China.
Greece played without Antonis Fotsis and Sofoklis Schortsanitis, who were suspended earlier this week by FIBA for their part in last weeks brawl in an exhibition game against Serbia. Both will also miss Greeces game against Puerto Rico on Sunday.
“I feel bad, it was so close,” said China guard Sun Yue, who scored 15 points.
China coach Bob Donewald said his players tried hard against a team that won the rebounds 42-37.
“We fought them, we battled, but there were too many attacks and rebounds by them and too many mistakes by us,” Donewald said.
Greece coach Jonas Kazlauskas was not happy with the performance of his team, which had 11 turnovers to Chinas 11.
“They played very well on one side, I am happy for them,” said Kazlauskas, who coached China previously. “We did not play well like we played before. We had good shooting positions but we hesitated and we had problems in defense.”
