Result of the first match in a play-off round of the Eurobasket-2005 left no chances for Russians to return home with medals on their necks. Completely unstoppable that evening Papaloukas didn’t spare his club teammates. He had a fantastic game – Theo was the best scorer in the Greek squad, but that’s not all.
CSKA point-guard helped his countrymen to receive a strong confidence with their actions after not so successful start of the first quarter – Russians led 13-2 at the beginning. When Papas came on the field and started doing his well-known breaks to the opposite’s basket and, more than that, hitting some three-pointers, situation changed a lot. And soon, in the third quarter, when Savrasenko (Alexey was dominant big man in the first half of the game) fouled out, Russians lost their advantage in the paint. Then they lost their score advantage too – and didn’t find their way to come back. Papaloukas’s 11 points in the last minutes were decisive in the match’s destiny.
Russia – Greece: 61-67
R.: Savrasenko (4+ 5 reb + 1 bs), Holden (15 + 2 st), Pashutin (0 + 3 reb + 2 as)…
G.: Papaloukas (23 + 4 reb + 2 st +1 bs), Dikoudis (11 + 5 reb + 2 st + 1 bs)…
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