EuroBasket 2017: Serbia and Russia progress

Spain and Slovenia are in the Final Four of EuroBasket 2017 after winning their quarter-final games on Tuesday. A day later, global basketball fans waited to find which nations would join them in the medal deciding contests. Russia was the first international basketball team to progress with a narrow win over Greece. Later in the day,

Russia vs. Greece, 69-74

Russia enters the Final Four for the first time since 2011 and remains in the hunt at EuroBasket 2017. The winners were forced to fight back in the second half, but by the closing buzzer had won three of the four quarters. Greece started stronger with a 24-17 first quarter and was up 37-31 through the long break. In the second half, Russia wrestled the momentum with a 16-20 third act, but still trailed 53-51 through thirty minutes. However, the team kept pushing and won the fourth quarter 16-23 to settle the contest.

Alexey Shved continued his awesome form with 26 game-winning points, while Timofey Mozgov secured a double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds.

Nick Calathes propelled the Greek attack with 25 points and 7 assists, with Georgios Printezis managing 19 points in the losing effort.

Serbia vs. Italy, 83-67

Serbia used strong second and fourth quarters to book its place in the semi-finals for the second consecutive EuroBasket tournament. The team will be hoping to go better than a fourth place finish at EuroBasket 2015. In this contest, the teams started close, but Serbia edged the first act 17-18. Italy struggled in the second frame as the Serbian players combined for 27 points and a 33-44 lead through the long break. The Azzurri traded blows for 15-15 in the third, before Serbia settled it with a 19-24 charge in the fourth quarter.

Bogdan Bogdanovic is living up to his billing as a hot property with another 22 points here, while Milan Macvan secured 13 points.

Marco Belinelli led a muted Italian charge with 18 points.