Greece ended Turkey's unbeaten run and stormed into the eight-finals in Saitama as Group C winners with a 76-69 triumph in the last game at the Hamamatsu Arena.

After Australia thrashed Qatar 93-46 and Lithuania defeated Brazil 79-74 to put themselves and the Boomers into the last 16 of the FIBA World Championship, Greece took on the Turks for group hegemony.

Playing in their first game without Nikos Zisis, who broke three bones in his face in a collision with Anderson Varejao of Brazil on Wednesday, the Greeks trailed 42-37 at half-time but eventually prevailed 76-69 with Mihalis Kakiouzis and Lazaros Papadopoulos each scoring 17 points.

Greece also got a big game from Sofoklis Schortsianitis, the Olympiacos center.

He finished with 14 points but will be best remembered for his second-half pass to Antonis Fotsis which led to a rim-rocking dunk by the forward.

“Today was a great game with the two best teams in the group,” said Schortsianitis.

“Both teams gave 100%. The reason we won was because we were more concentrated in crucial moments of the game."

Turkey, due in large part to Greece’s defense, only scored five points in the third quarter and found themselves 54-47 down after three quarters.

Serkan Erdogan kept his team in the game in the fourth quarter by scoring 10 of his game-high 30 points.

Two Erdogan free throws tied the game for the final time at 69-69 before Vassilis Spanoulis’ three-pointer from the left corner gave Greece the lead for good at 72-69.

Spanoulis then added four free throws for the final scoreline.

Ersan Ilyasova, 19, missed the contest with an ankle injury and Cenk Akyol, another youngster, ate up his minutes.

In the eight finals, Turkey will take on Slovenia while Greece to face China.

Australia halted their three-game losing streak with a big win over Qatar.

Mark Worthington scored 17 points and captain Jason Smith had 16 as Australia broke open a close game in the second quarter and cruised to victory.

Some of the Australian players looked on as a brave fightback by Brazil came up just short in defeat to Lithuania.

Tiago Splitter had a sensational game for Brazil with 17 points and seven rebounds but he missed a lay-up late on that would have tied the game with 14 seconds remaining.

Earlier in the quarter, Splitter’s team-mates had missed crucial free throws.

Giedrus Gustas was the hero for Lithuania, twice hitting three-pointers in the closing stages to keep the Baltic giants in the lead.

Lithuania will take on Italy and Australia face a difficult task against Team USA.

Standings:
Team W/L
1. Greece 5/0
2. Turkey 4/1
3. Lithuania 3/2
4. Australia 2/3
5. Brazil 1/5
6. Qatar 0/6

Article courtesy of www.fiba.com