STOCKHOLM, 15 September 2003 — Two-time European title-holders Italy qualified for next year’s Olympics yesterday by beating France 69-67 to capture the bronze medal at the 2003 European Championships.
Dennis Marconato led the Italians with 16 points and Giacomo Galanda added 15 as the 1983 and 1999 champions held on to beat France, which received a strong performance of 24 points by San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker.
Parker missed a running lean-in shot with two seconds left as the Italian defense proved itself after holding the French offense without a basket for 10 minutes in the first half. France pulled ahead 12-5 earlier, but Italy went on a 23-1 run for a 28-13 lead halfway through the second quarter.
France fought back and finally took the lead, 64-63, on a Parker basket with 2:08 remaining. Italy then scored four straight points, and Gianluca Basile, who missed much of the game with an injury, made two free throws with 16.8 seconds to push the lead to 69-66.
In the final game, Spain play Lithuania for the Euro2003 title at Stockholms Globe Arena. Italy joins Spain, Lithuania Serbia & Montenegro and Greece as Europe’s five representatives at the 2004 Olympics in Athens
Reigning European and World champions Serbia & Montenegro completed their worst continental campaign since 1985 by losing to Greece 72-64 yesterday to finish sixth at the 2003 edition.
Nikolaos Chatzivrettas scored 21 points and Iakovos Tsakalidis added 16 as the 1987 champions Greece knocked off the eight-time winners in the game for fifth place at Stockholm’s Globe Arena.
Milan Gurovic led the Serbia & Montenegro team with 15 points, but it was not enough as the Balkan giants were missing injured NBA stars Predrag Stojakovic and Marko Jaric.
Yugoslavia finished seventh in 1983 in France and in 1985 in West Germany.
Since then they won five of the seven European Championships in which they competed. Yugoslavia were banned from playing at Germany 1993, and Italy beat Yugoslavia in the semi-finals in France 1999. At Greece 1987, Yugoslavia took the bronze.
“Now we have to calm down and analyze what happened here and find good aspects so that something like this never happens again”, said Serbia & Montenegro coach Dusan Vujosevic.
In yesterday’s first game, Meir Tapiro, Yaniv Yoav Green and Tal Burnstein combined for 66 points as Israel surprised Russia, 89-82, to take seventh place. The Russians received 26 points from Serguei Monia but just 11 points from NBA star Anderi Kirilenko.
The bronze medal game between Italy and France was being played later, with the winner qualifying for the 2004 Olympics in Athens. The gold medal game between Spain and Lithuania was to follow.
