May 25, 2012
EuroBasket 2009 finals: September 20
Gold-medal game: Spain 85-63 Serbia

Spain Champ Eurobasket 2009, (Photo FIBA Europe)A tradition of finishing second ended emphatically on Sunday when clearly superior Spain marched to the gold medal at EuroBasket 2009 with a resounding 85-63 victory against young, overmatched Serbia in Katowice, Poland. Spain had finished second by losing all six of its previous finals appearances over the last 74 years, including the first European championships in 1935 and three in the last decade. That's ancient history now, as Spain not only swept the knockout stage - quarterfinals, semis and final - by an average of 20 points, but tied for the second-biggest title-game margin of victory in tournament history, behind only the Soviet Union defeating Czechoslovakia 120-89 in 1985. Spain also avenged a tournament-opening loss to Serbia that helped force the favorites into a do-or-die situation just to reach the quarterfinals. From that point forward, however, Spain was golden, never moreso than Sunday, when a 19-4 first-quarter run established leads that ballooned as high as 25 points right after halftime. Pau Gasol led the winners with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Rudy Fernandez added 13 points. Regal FC Barcelona teammates Juan Carlos Navarros, last season's Euroleague MVP, had 12 points, and Ricky Rubio 10. Felipe Reyes of Real Madrid added 8 rebounds as Spain won the battle of the boards 42-24. Serbia, proud owners of silver medals despite the final blowout, had its best finish since winning five golds in 12 years between 1989 and 2001 as Yugoslavia. Novica Velickovic of Real Madrid and Uros Tripkovic led Serbia with 15 points each, while Nenad Krstic added 12. Under the direction of new head coach Sergio Scariolo, Spain's defense held Milos Teodosic, Serbia's hero in the semifinals, to 6 points on Sunday. "I think the hard road that we took will help us value more what this gold medal means," Rubio said. "People thought we would win easy, but to achieve something like this, a gold medal in Europe, is never easy. Once again, though, we learned that it's not how you start, but how you finish that's important."

Juan Carlos Navarro - Spain (PHOTO: FIBA Europe) Inside baskets by Pau Gasol and Krstic around dueling triples by Tripkoic and Navarro produced a quick 5-5 tie that Rubio broke with a strike from the corner. When Gasol scored inside and Jorge Garbajosa blasted Spain's third triple from the other corner, Spain was up 13-5. By the time Fernandez joined the three-point barrage and Raul Lopez stole for a layup, it was 20-7 and Serbia needed a timeout. Navarro ended Spain's 19-4 run with a layup at 24-9. Tripkovic from downtown and Velickovic driving to the basket gave Serbia some hope at the end of the first quarter, but Spain was still in full control at 24-14. Velickovic kept Serbia going from the baseline to start the second quarter, but a Fernandez-to-Gasol alley-oop dunk restored the double-digit difference, 28-18. When Fernandez made an acrobatic fastbreak reverse and Rubio fed Reyes for another layup, it was 34-18 and Serbia needed another timeout. Spain had a 17-5 rebounding edge by then. Spain proved one step ahead of Serbia again and again, on both ends of the court. When Rubio drilled a loose-ball triple on the shot-clock buzzer, the lead had crested the 20-point mark, 43-22. Navarro's next three-point blast sent Spain to halftime ahead by an amazing 52-29. Rubio's alley-oop layup on a pass by Pau Gasol started the third quarter with the game's high lead, 54-29. Krstic, Velickovic and Teodosic helped Serbia lower the deficit to 14 points, 58-44, but Spain scored the third-quarter's last 9 points to go back up 67-44. Carlos Cabezas scored the first 5 points of the fourth quarter and Sergio Llull a three-point play shortly thereafter for a high lead so far of 27 points, 75-48. The only question now was whether Spain would erase from memory 74 years of frustration with the biggest victory in European finals history. The difference hit 79-50 with 5 minutes left, but that would prove the high as most of Spain's starters were on the bench celebrating a long-awaited medal of the best color, gold.

Bronze-medal game: Greece 57-56 Slovenia

Sofoklis Schortsanitis - Greece (PHOTO: FIBA Europe)Greece returned to the medal stand on Sunday by outlasting feisty Slovenia in a defensive battle, 57-56, for third place at EuroBasket 2009 in Poland. Greece, which was EuroBasket champion in 2005 and lost the bronze-medal game in 2007, survived a game-ending shot attempt from halfcourt by Bostjan Nachbar after Slovenia rallied from double-digit second-half deficits. Greece followed center Sofoklis Schortsanitis of Olympiacos to victory, going inside to the slimmed-down big man for one of his best scoring nights ever, 23 points, including 4 key free throws when Slovenia got close in the final quarter. Schortsanitis was the only double-digit scorer for the winners, whose defense did the rest, but frontcourt dominance was the key. Ioannis Bourousis added 9 points and 7 rebounds for Greece. Jaka Lakovic played all 40 minutes scored 10 of his team-high 16 points in the last 2 minutes for Slovenia, which also got 12 points and 9 rebounds from Erazem Lorbek, 9 points and 5 rebounds from Nachbar. Back-to-back triples by Nachbar supplied Slovenia's first lead, 5-6, but Schortsianitis scored his first basket next, and put in 6 more points to put Greece ahead at the end of one quarter, 16-13. Greece kept going inside until Georgios Printezis, Ioannis Bouroussis and Schortsanitis had boosted the difference into double-digits, 29-19. It was all Slovenia could do to trim gap to 31-24 at halftime, and the continuing dominance of Greece's defense made it 36-26 midway through the third quarter. Lakovic and Uros Slokar ended the drought with triples, and Nachbar's layup left a 42-37 scoreboard after three quarters. Slokar, Lakovic and Beno Udrih helped Slovenia closed within 47-45 with 5 minutes left. Slovenia had the chance to tie a minute later, but Erazem Lorbek made only 1 of 2 free throws. Greece went back to Schortsanitis on the ensuing possessions, and his 4-for-4 accuracy at the line boosted the lead to 51-46. Lakovic drilled a triple at 51-49, on the two-minute mark, but the next score waited until Zisis saved a rebound of his own miss to set up a huge triple by Fotsis to make it 54-49 with 31 seconds left. A quick layup by Lakovic set up a free throw parade that left a 57-53 scoreboard. But Lakovic against blasted from three-point distance, with 10 seconds left, to make it 57-56. Spanoulis missed both free throws with 4.6 seconds left, the second one purposefully, denying Slovenia a timeout and leaving Nachbar to try a running triple from the sideline that fell short, meaning bronze medals for Greece.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Euroleague.net
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