It took two overtimes, but Croatia – which had already cinched a spot in the quarter-finals, ended Greece’s hopes of playing on in the Eurobasket 2013 tourney, 92-88, a loss that could have locked Greece out of next year’s world championships even though the team is ranked fourth.
The Greeks only had an outside chance of making the quarterfinals of the tournament, but made critical errors and missed its two injured players, Costas Papanikolaou and Loukas Mavrokefalidis.
Despite that, Greece had a chance to win at the end of the first overtime but Nikos Zisis’ contested driving layup rattled off the rim.
In the second overtime, Croatia nailed a critical three-pointer and then Bojan Bogdanovic sunk two free throws to give his team a four-point cushion, 90-86, with 17 seconds on the clock.
Greece killed itself with long shots, hitting only six-of-27 three pointers for a 22.2 percent average and once again was unable to play cohesively when it counted.
It was a disappointing tourney for the team that came in with a chance to go deep into the draw but, after winning its first three games, fell apart with losses to Italy, Finland and Slovenia.
Greece, which missed making it into the 2012 Olympics with a one-point loss to Nigeria in preliminary games, now can not go to the World Championships unless getting a wild card invitation. Greece finished second in the 2006 world games after beating the U.S. in a stunning upset in the semi-finals.
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