France wins Bronze Medal at Euro Championships

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In keeping with the theme of the week, Diaw made the all tournament team.

MVP Nowitzki Tops EuroBasket 2005 All-Tournament Team

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By David Hein 25 September 2005
Germany's Dirk Nowitzki claimed the Most Valuable Player award at the 2005 EuroBasket and topped the competition's All-Tournament team.

Nowitzki won the honour - voted by international media representatives at Belgrade Arena - for leading Germany to Sunday's final against Greece. The Dallas Mavericks star went into the final as the tournament's leading scorer (26.7 ppg) and second-leading rebounder (10.8 rpg) and shot blocker (1.8 blpg).

Nowitzki carried his team, twice hitting shots in the final seconds to will Germany into the final and guaranteeing them their second EuroBasket medal following their gold medal at the 1993 championships in Munich.

Nowitzki was also voted by the media as the top power forward of the tournament.

He was joined on the All-Tournament team by Greek center Lazaros Papadoloulos (11.3 ppg and 3.7 rpg) and Greece's point guard Dimitrios Diamantidis, who led the tournament in assists (5.3 per game) had 5.2 rebounds and 6 points a game. Diamantidis also hit a three-pointer in the
waning seconds against France to move the Greeks into the final.

France's Boris Diaw was picked as the top small forward for his all around game (13.7 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 3.4 apg, 1.0 spg, 1.3 blpg) in leading the French to the bronze medal.

Spain's Juan Carlos Navarro was selected as the top shooting guard, averaging 25.2 points and 1.2 steals as well as hitting 69-79 (87.3 per cent) free throws for the fourth-placed Iberians.


France Win Bronze Medal

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By Kevin Anselmo 25 September 2005
After 46 years, the French basketball team can finally return home from a EuroBasket with some hardware.

Tony Parker was magnificent with 25 points and five assists, Mickael Pietrus added 23 and France crushed Spain 98-63 to win bronze at the 2005 EuroBasket and bring home the country´s first medal in the competition since 1959.

France won their sixth EuroBasket medal overall, five of which are bronze, and broke a streak of 22 medal-less appearances.

“This is a great step for French basketball,” said Parker. “People will now stop saying we can´t win anything.”

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Florent Pietrus
“This is an historical day for French basketball since we didn't win a medal since 1959,” added head coach Claude Bergeaud. “We won some medals with the youth national team, but we had a problem showing our best with the senior team.”

Les Bleus dominated the third quarter to take control of the game and Spain self-destructed to put the game out of reach. Up eight to start the second half, France opened the third on an 11-4 run to take a 55-40 lead and open up their biggest lead of the game at 15. Parker sparked the spurt by scoring seven points with a three-pointer to go along with two driving lay-ups.

Spain started to unravel and show their frustration midway through the third when Jose Calderon was whistled for a technical foul for kicking the advertising board surrounding the court after not getting a foul call. Florent Pietrus hit the technical free throws and France went up 59-43.

A little more than a minute later and in between a Mickael Pietrus three-pointer, Juan Carlos Navarro was called for a technical foul for complaining to the officials. Florent Pietrus hit one of two free technical free throws and Parker´s driving lay-up put the French in total command with a 65-43 lead with 3:12 remaining in the third.

The Pietrus brothers put an exclamation point on the third with two dunks in the final minute of the quarter and France led 75-54 going into the fourth.

“After halftime, my team was physcally down, ” said Spanish head coach Mario Pesquera. “We couldn´t stop them anymore – they were just too athletic.”

For the quarter, France outscored Spain 31-18.

France continued to pour it on the fourth and the crowd applauded as France´s starters began coming out of the game with under two minutes to go.

Frederic Fauthoux, who had logged just five minutes entering play today, hit a three with three seconds to go and received high-fives and hugs from his team-mates, who moments later celebrated their medal achievement.

“We have to continue this pace to the next World Championship,” said Gelabale. “We digested what happened earlier in the tournament and played our best game tonight.”

Despite suffering heart-breaking one-point losses the night before, both teams opened up the first quarter shooting 50% and Spain´s Fran Vazquez´s hit a three as time expired in the quarter to tie the game at 21.

France outscored Spain 14-4 though the first six minutes of the second quarter and took a 44-36 advantage into the halftime locker room. The quarter concluded on a alley oop from Antoine Rigadeau to Gelabale.

Known in EuroBasket for defensive low-scoring basketball, France played a more up-tempo game, resulting in four fast-break electrifying dunks on the other end. The French also dominated down-low with a 46-16 points in the paint edge.

Their 44 points in the first half matched their highest total for EuroBasket 2005 and their 98 for the game was also a team best.

Mickael Gelabale and Florent Pietrus each contributed 13 for the victors.

Navarro, who entered today´s play as the leading scorer in EuroBasket with 26 a game, was held to 17. Jorge Garbajosa finished with 12 and Carlos Jimenez had 10.

Spain failed to medal in EuroBasket for the first time since 1997 after having claimed the silver in 1999 and 2003 and the bronze in 2001.

Although France came up short in their quest for gold following a disappointing loss to Greece last night, Parker takes many positives from EuroBasket 2005 in comparision to the team´s fourth place finish in 2003.

“We made a mistake two years ago when we lost the semi-finals to Lithuania and we didn't come ready for bronze medal game against Italy,” said Parker. “This time we didn´t.”

 

[George O'Brien]

Quiet game by Boris: 3 of 5 shooting including 1 of 1 for three (no foul shots), 3 rebounds, 3 steals, and a blocked shot. He led the team with 28 minutes.

Box Score France vs Spain

It is notable that Diaw made the all tournament team

France's Boris Diaw was picked as the top small forward for his all around game (13.7 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 3.4 apg, 1.0 spg, 1.3 blpg) in leading the French to the bronze medal.

BTW, Greece beat Germany to win the gold.

Greece Shocks Europe and Win 2005 EuroBasket Gold

25 September 2005
Greece concluded their improbable EuroBasket run with a convincing 78-62 victory over Germany to win the gold medal for the first time since 1987.

In front of a raucous pro-Greece, sold out crowd of 19,000 at the Belgrade Arena, the Greeks used their trademark of teamwork and solid defence to roll to victory over a Dirk Nowitzki led German team.

As the final buzzer sounded, players ran on to the court in celebration and the thousands of Greek fans in attendance rose to their feet singing songs from their homeland. Head coach Panagiotis Yannakis was thrown in the air by his players.

Theodoros Papaloukas was not tournament MVP, but he was the best player during the final

Theodoros Papaloukas scored 22 points to lead Greece, including a pair of three-pointers that started the second half and ignited Greece´s break-out quarter when they extended their lead to double digits and took control of the game.

“It´s a big honour to see your country´s flag raised and to sing the national anthem,” said Theodorus Popouloukas. “I know everyone back home is on the streets celebrating.”

EuroBasket 2005 tournament Most Valuable Player Nowitzki was once again brilliant, this time in defeat. He scored 23, including a perfect 10-of-10 from the free throw line. He got little help from his team-mates, with only Patrick Femerling finishing in double figures scoring with 11.

In one of the many emotional moments at the Belgrade Arena, Nowitzki was pulled with 3:22 to go in the fourth and the outcome of the game no longer in doubt. Nowitzki received a thunderous standing ovation, many of were Greek fans. Nowitzki hugged everyone - team-mates, coaches and physios and waved to the crowd.

The fact that they gave him an ovation even though he was the opposition was great,” said German head coach Dirk Bauermann. “It´s well deserved.”

Said Nowitzki: “Greece played phenomenal and deserved to win.”

For Yannakis, it is deja vu all over again. Eighteen years ago, Yannakis was the point guard for Greece´s team that unexpectedly won the 1987 EuroBasket title, similar to the 2005 team which was not considered a tournament favourite.

“I'm dreaming,” said the victorious coach. “I'm not on earth. This is unbelievable.”

In a competition that featured Nowitzki and a host of other marquee NBA names, it was the team without a single NBA player that took home the gold, demonstrating the importance of team basketball.

Greece led 39-32 at half-time, and pressed home their advantage in third quarter when they opened quickly. The men in blue and white hit three-pointers on their first three possessions at the start of the quarter, two from Paploukas and the other by Nikolaos Chatzivrettas to open a 48-36 lead. Papaloukas added another bucket, putting Greece up 50-36.

After the teams exchanged baskets over the next minutes, Papaloukas delivered another dagger with a three from the corner extending Greece´s lead to 61-44 with 1:53 remaining in the third.

Greece, who took a 64-48 lead into the fourth quarter, started sloppy with a pair of turnovers, but Germany came up empty on two of three possessions.

Papaloukas, who was selected to the 2005 EuroBasket All-Tournament Team, was again the man of the night, connecting on a driving lay-up to put Greece up 68-50 with 6:57 to go in the fourth and all that remained in doubt from that point on was how loud the celebration would be.

“We dreamed of this,” said Papaloukas. “I was 10 years old when coach´s team won. Now we realize we can do the same for Greeks kids. This is one of the greatest moments of our career.”

The fans at the beginning of the game had witnessed a nervous start.

Both teams opened tentatively through the first seven minutes as Germany committed seven turnovers and as a result took only four field goal attempts. Greece were two of their first nine but then made five of their last six shot attempts in the quarter to jump out to a 19-12 lead.

Sven Schultze came off the bench to score four points and the Germans were fortunate to only be down seven after finishing the quarter with more turnovers (seven) than field goals attempts (six).

Greece went on a 9-2 second quarter run to open up a 10-point lead with 5:47 to go in the half. Captain Michail Kakiouzis scored five during the spurt with a three-pointer and put-back.

The teams exchanged baskets for the rest of the second quarter. Nowitzki´s three-pointer as the second quarter buzzer sounded allowed Germany to go into their halftime locker room with a bounce in their step.

When it was over, Niko Zisis had scored 13 points and Kakiouzis 11 in a dominant team performance.

Germany, who used hot three-point shooting to advance to the medal round, shot just three-of-16 from downtown and committed 21 crucial turnovers for the game.

Demonstrating the improbability of Greece´s gold medal run, even Yannakis said prior to the tournament that a top-six finish and berth to the FIBA World Championship was the goal, anything higher being a significant feat.

Well, Greece did more than just a significant feat, considering that they took out Russia, France and Germany in the quarters, semis and final to claim the gold. Each of those teams was led by top NBA players in Andrei Kirilenko, Tony Parker and Nowitzki respectively.

For Germany, a silver medal was beyond the expectations of many, and even themselves. Coach Dirk Bauermann said it would be difficult to finish in the top six, so clearly the Germans can take away many positives from their second medal ever in EuroBasket.

“No one expected us to get this far, so it´s an accomplishment we got this far,” said Nowitzki.

They had won gold in 1993.

The Greeks have now won four medals overall.