Greek hoopsters beat Serbia and get closer to the finals

Greece has all but qualified to next year's World Championship in China thanks to its 70-63 home win over Serbia at Iraklio on Thursday.

A solid second-half showing at the Dyo Aorakia arena (the score was 35-32 at half-time) sufficed for the players of coach Thanassis Skourtopoulos to defeat one of the group's main challengers for a spot in the finals, helped also by a rather poor shooting rate by the Serbs.

All this resulted in Greece containing its opponent to just 63 points, a marked improvement from the friendlies it had played a few days earlier.

Yiannis Bourousis was spectacular for the Greeks with nine points, 10 rebounds and eight assists, coming mighty close to a triple-double.

Nick Calathes and Giorgos Printezis made 15 points each.

This was Greece's seventh win in as many games (the other six were carried over from the first...