The Evina Maltsi show was the main attraction again at the EuroBasket Women on Saturday as Greece defeated the Czech Republic to keep their hopes of reaching the Quarter-Finals alive.

Maltsi, playing against some of her ZVVZ USK Prague teammates, hit five shots from long range and finished with 24 points as Greece won 62-45.

The Greeks can now reach the Quarter-Finals if they win against Slovakia in their last Group E game. They desperately want to stay in Latvia.

"At past EuroBaskets, I was ready to go home and enjoy the summer," Maltsi said.

"This time, my teammates and I were talking and saying how we want to stay.

"This has been the best EuroBasket Women I've played at in terms of the teams being level but also the organization."

"I must congratulate my players," Greece coach Kostas Missas said.

"They stayed focused on offense and defense for 40 minutes.

"It was important to keep their players out of the paint and the defense did that."

Greece opened up a 30-22 advantage at half-time but the Czechs emerged from the changing rooms with renewed focus on both ends of the floor and went on a 12-4 run to knot the contest at 34-34.

The Czechs' Tereza Peckova scored six points in that spurt while Jana Vesela's free throws capped the run to make it 34-34.

Maltsi, as she has all tournament for Greece, came to the fore.

She buried her fourth three-pointer for a 37-34 lead and Greece kept their noses in front the rest of the way.

Greece took a 42-38 advantage to the fourth quarter after Afrodite Kosma's three-pointer.

The Czechs cut the deficit to 42-40 on a Katerina Elhotova lay-up but Pelagia Papamichail replied with a shot down low for Greece and then Maltsi drilled another three for a 47-40 lead.

Eva Viteckova's jumper with 4:54 remaining closed the gap 51-45 but Greece shut the Czechs down for the remainder of the game.

"Today was an example that anyone can play basketball as the second tallest team in the tournament met the shortest team," said Missas, whose team finished level with the Czechs in the rebounding department at 38-38.

"It proves that you don't need height.

"What you need is brain and heart. I think my team showed that."

The Czech Republic went into the EuroBasket knowing it was going to be extremely difficult without veteran point guard Hana Horakova and center Ivana Vecerova.

Both are expected to play at the 2010 FIBA World Championship that is being staged in the Czech Republic.
"We had problems with our offense," Czech star Eva Vitekcova said.

"To score just 45 points is terrible. We just couldn't stop Maltsi while Greece had other players contributing on offense."

After suffering heart-breaking Group B defeats to Poland and Latvia in Liepaja and then crashing to a heavy loss against Spain in the Qualifying Round, the Greeks showed they have a pulse.

Greece meet the Czech Republic in a battle for survival on Saturday.

Each finished 1-2 in the Preliminary Round and then crashed to defeats on the opening day of Qualifying Round play.

The Greeks, after opening with a resounding victory over Hungary in Group B, suffered back-to-back heart-breaking losses to Poland and Latvia, respectively.

In Riga, Kostas Missas' team went in front of Spain by eight points in the first half but ended up crashing to 67-48 defeat.

Greece endured an eight-minute scoring drought that began at the end of the second quarter and continued deep into the third against Spain.

"Our biggest problem that we have is on offense," said Missas.

"We cannot find solutions from the paint and that, besides everything, doesn't allow us to get on the bonus (for free throws). We have two or three players that are responsible for the offense but if only we could score 70 points, then we could win some games."

In Group A, the Czech Republic began the EuroBasket Women with narrow setbacks to Spain and Slovakia before coming back from a 16-point deficit to stun Ukraine.

Milan Veverka's team carried the momentum into the Qualifying Round game against Latvia and had an eight-point lead in the first half but weren't able to press home the advantage.

The Latvians took command at the end of the second quarter and then blew the game wide open in the third when they outscored the Czechs 19-7 with Zane Tamane and Anete Jekabsone-Zogota (25pts) inflicting most of the damage on offense.
 
Last Time Out: The Czech Republic beat Greece 61-54 in the Preliminary Round of the EuroBasket Women in 2005.
 
Stats: Greece were limited to just four points in the third quarter by Spain while the Czech Republic were outscored 19-7 by Latvia in the third quarter.
 
Key Match-Up: The Czech Republic's sharpshooter Eva Viteckova vs Greece's Evina Maltsi.
Viteckova plays for Gambrinus Brno while Maltsi plays for Czech champions USK Prague.
 
X-Factor:  Greece's Syliani Kaltsidou made a big impression in the Group Stages in Liepaja, providing offensive power alongside Maltsi. She had a nightmare performance against Spain, making just two of 11 from the floor and finishing with five points after 28 minutes on the court.
 
Sounding-Off: "It's an important game. It's the tallest team in the tournament (Czech Republic) against the shortest team in the tournament (Greece). It will be very interesting against the Czech Republic. We'll try to come up with a special tactic and plan against their big girls. That disadvantage with height in defense we hope we can turn it into an advantage in our offense" - Greece head coach Kostas Missas.