SHENZHEN, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Czech Republic already have one foot in the quarter-final despite their second-round 84-77 loss to Greece at the FIBA World Cup here on Monday.
Although the Czechs lost by 7 points, they will make it into the quarter-final as long as the USA beat Brazil. If the USA loses, the USA and Brazil will advance to the final 8 together.
"It's always tough to play in a moment like this when you know you have a margin you can lose by. But we did a good job most of the time. We wanted to win today but Greece is a good team, they play good basketball and made some shots in the end so we can be happy about this 7-point loss." said Czech Republic's Vojtech Hruban after the game.
The Czech Republic surged a 7-0 run to level it 31-all in the second quarter after falling behind 18-12 at the end of the first. Greece answered the 7-0 sprint and came back to take the lead 57-49, entering the last period. Greece scored ten unanswered points to lead 61-49 before Giannis Antetokounmpo fouled out in the middle of the fourth.
Jaromir Bohacik had 25 points for the Czechs, while Tomas Satoransky had 13 points, 9 assists, and 8 rebounds. Patrik Auda also added 13. Nick Calathes scored 27 points and had 6 assists and 6 rebounds for Greece while Giannis Antetokounmpo finished with 12 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals. Enditem
