Serbia-Montenegro flexed its muscles on Saturday evening to defeat Israel 93-77 in the second round of Group D of the European Basketball Championship.

After a poor performance in the first round against Spain Friday evening, Serbia-Montenegro played well against Israel and got an important victory before the final round with Latvia.

In the game played in Novi Sad, a key Serbian city some 70 kilometers northwest of Belgrade, Serbia-Montenegro was in the lead nearly throughout the match thanks to well organized defense.

Earlier on Saturday, Spain beat Latvia 114-109 in overtime, registering its second victory in Group D.

The 34th European Basketball Championship kicked off on Friday evening in four groups, respectively in Vrsac, Podgorica, Belgrade and Novi Sad, the four cities in Serbia-Montenegro.

The results of other matches played in the second round on Saturday evening were as follows:

In Group A, played in Vrsac, a city some 80 kilometers northeast of Belgrade, Russia, a favorite for wining the gold medal, beat Italy 87-61and secured its second victory and first place in the group. Germany trounced Ukraine 84-58, without exerting much effort.

In Group B, played in Podgoric, capital of Montenegro, Defending champion Lithuania beat its most serious rival Croatia 85-67, registering its second victory. Lithuania practically secured a position for the quarterfinals, as it will play Bulgaria in the last round and is expected to win. Turkey beat Bulgaria 94-89 after a hard fight, yielding its first victory in the championship.

In Group C, played in Belgrade, Slovenia dictated the entire game with Greece and beat it 68-56. Slovenia needs to beat France Sunday in order to be first in the group and go directly to quarterfinals. France had a harder time than expected in beating Bosnia-Herzegovina 79-62.

Source: Xinhua