France stun Serbia to reach last eight with Germany, Croatia, Greece at European Championship
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-09-21 08:26

In the second half, Serbia's offence came to a screeching halt as France outpaced the home side and made it difficult for them to score from any possession.

Germany's Dirk Nowitzki (3rd R), who also plays for the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, fights for the ball with Turkey's Kaya Peker (2nd R) and Mehmet Okur (R), from the NBA's Utah Jazz, as Demond Greene (C) watches during their European basketball championship match in Vrsac, September 20, 2005. [Reuters]

Diaw and Parker ran the Serbs ragged at the other end with pick-and-roll play, opening uncontested shots from mid-range and behind the arc or easy lay-ups when the home side's pivots were drawn forward to help out a static back-court defence.

France took a 58-57 lead early in the fourth quarter and never looked back, holding their own to stay ahead 70-66 with two minutes left on the clock.

The Serbs pulled back to 72-71 with a three-pointer from Dejan Bodiroga but could not make a shot from several attempts on their last possession to force overtime after Rigaudeau and Diaw nailed a free throw each at the other end to make it 74-71.

Jaric and Vladimir Radmanovic, strangely kept on the bench in the final period after an excellent opening three, scored 14 points each for Serbia while Igor Rakocevic and Nenad Krstic had 11 apiece.

GREEK VICTORY

Greece beat Israel 67-61 in the other evening game to reach the quarter-finals thanks to aggressive first half defending which lifted them to 25-14 at the interval as the two teams combined for a lowest halftime total of the tournament so far.

The Israelis shot only 4-of-19 from the field in the first half and committed a series of turnovers, allowing the Greeks to keep nosing ahead throughout the match.

Greece dominated the boards, outscoring Israel 38-22 in the paint and out-rebounded them 38-28 to run out comfortable winners in the end.

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