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Serbia, Italy and Spain reap victories in EuroBasket 2015

Xinhua, September 7, 2015 Adjust font size:

Nemanja Bjelica's late one-handed floater ensured Serbia's 68-66 win over Germany while Italy inflicted Iceland the second loss in row and Spain crushed Turkey 104-77 to close day-two in EuroBasket's Group D here on Sunday.

Serbia moved past resilient Germany in dramatic encounter thanks to the late score by Bjelica, who sealed the deal with 0.9 seconds remaining to secure Serbia's second win in Group B.

Germany started highly motivated into the encounter against Serbia in front of 13,500 spectators on home soil. Thus, the hosts were able to establish a 15-10 lead early in the first quarter. However, Serbia called a time out and stopped Germany's offensive run to sew up the first quarter 19-18.

In the second quarter, Serbia still lacked in accuracy meanwhile Germany started again well to grab a seven-point lead (38-31). Nevertheless, the visitors remained unimpressed and showed their comeback qualities when they turned up to win the second quarter by one point (39-38).

After the restart, Germany continued their resilient performance but they were again unable to defend their neat lead (43-41) as Serbia piled on the pressure to turn the tides late in the third quarter (51-48).

The fourth quarter started differently, as it were Serbia who caught a bright start for the first time. The visitors established a six-point lead (56-50) but continued with poor-shooting allowing the Germans to restore parity (66-66) through Heiko Schaffartzik, who marked the crucial triple with 23 seconds left.

Despite a courageous performance by the hosts, world runners-up Serbia had an ace in the hole as their top scorer Bjelica clinched the win with a floater in the dying seconds of the game, rounding off his 12-point game. Meanwhile, Tibor Pleiss was Germany's best scorer with 15 points.

At the second encounter of Group B, EuroBasket debutants Iceland suffered their second straight loss whereas Italy wrapped up their first victory with a 71-64 triumph to recover from yesterdays 87-89 loss to Turkey.

Despite a courageous performance Iceland gave away a 62-59 lead with just three minutes to play, allowing the Italians to come from behind following a frenetic closing period with a 12-point run which took the wind of the Icelander's sails.

Relentless Spaniards completed day two in Group D after earning their first victory thanks to the hammering 104-77 win over hapless Turkey. The two-time EuroBasket champions dominated the encounter in all departments and inflicted the Turks the first defeat.

After Sunday's results Serbia leads Group D with four points followed by Spain, Italy, Germany, Turkey with three points and Iceland with two points.

Only the top four teams in each group book their tickets for the round of the last 16, which will be held in Lille, France. Endit