By Angelica Medina
LILLE, France (Reuters) – Greece edged Australia 77-71 in Group A to remain in contention at the Olympic men’s basketball competition on Friday as Brazil beat Japan 102-84 to secure third place in Group B in their bid to reach the quarter-finals in the final round of games.
Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo was prolific as usual, scoring 20 points with seven rebounds and six assists to lead his team to their first win of the pool stage.
The ‘Greek Freak’ was helped by Dinos Mitoglou and Thomas Walkup, who finished with a combined 31 points.
The victory keeps Greece in contention for a place in the quarter-finals, with the Aussies also still in the misx, though both sides must wait for the result of Friday’s game between Canada, who have already qualified, and Spain.
At the end of the group phase the top eight teams from the combined ranking qualify for the quarter-finals.
Brazil’s win over Japan secure third place in Group B, while Germany and France, who meet later on Friday, have already booked places in the last eight.
The hero for the ‘Verde-Amarela’ was forward Bruno Caboclo, who scored an impressive 33 points and made 17 rebounds.
“It’s the biggest stage of basketball,” Caboclo told reporters. “(Being) in the national team is bigger than NBA or anything. The Olympics are the biggest in the world.
“Every athlete wants to be here, at least one time. We were able to accomplish that.
“Hopefully, we can go to the quarter-finals. And from there, we have another goal – to go to the semi-finals,” he added.
Brazil will have to wait for the results of the other group games to see if they finish amongst the top two third-placed teams to progress to the next stage.
(Reporting by Angelica Medina in Lille, editing Ken Ferris)
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