AP- AP Wire Service
Jul 05 11:46
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) _ Greece, Lithuania and Russia entered the final qualifying tournament for men's basketball as the favorites to claim the last three berths for the London Olympics.
This hasn't changed going into Friday's quarterfinals, with all three having won their groups and expected to advance to Saturday's semifinals where two berths will be decided. The final berth will be determined on Sunday.
The Friday lineup offers: Russia vs. Angola, Greece vs. Nigeria, Macedonia vs. the Dominican Republic, and Lithuania vs. Puerto Rico.
The shock so far was Nigeria beating Lithuania 86-80 on Wednesday in Group B. The result allowed the Africans to advance, and eliminated the host team Venezuela.
"Nobody expected us to beat Lithuania,'' said Derrick Obasohan, who led Nigeria with 20 points. "But we stayed tough, played hard and we're moving on to the next round.''
Lithuania took the bronze medal in three straight Olympics -1992, 1996 and 2000- and lost the last two bronze-medal games in Athens and Beijing.
"There's a lot at stake, there's history at stake,'' Lithuania's Martynas Pocius said. "We've been to every Olympics since `92 so we want to make it. For some of the guys it could be their last Olympics and for a lot of the guys it might be our first Olympics, so we really want to make it.''
Next up for Nigeria is Greece, a silver medalist in the 2006 world championship.
"We are trying to build our chemistry,'' Greek player Vasileios Spanoulis said. "Unfortunately, we didn't have the time to work too much in preparation. ... We're trying to build our chemistry through the games.''
Saturday's semifinals will pit either Greece or Nigeria against Russia or Angola. The other semifinal will have Lithuania or Puerto Rico face Macedonia or the Dominican Republic.
The two semifinals losers play on Sunday for the final berth.
Nine teams have already qualified for London: Spain, France, Argentina, Brazil, Britain, China, Australia, Tunisia and the United States.
To continue reading, Â login or sign up for The Greek Star:
    
Leave your comments