Pelagia Papamichail had 15 points and eight rebounds and Dimitra Kalentzou added 12 points, five rebounds and seven assists for the Greeks, who qualified for the 2010 Worlds in the Czech Republic as well as the 2011 EuroBasket Women in Poland.

"I am really happy because we are going to the World Championship.  It was our dream coming here.

Maltsi impressed yet again for Greece.

But every game we took one at a time and stayed focused and concentrated. And we proved today that we are a good team and earned the respect of everybody," said Maltsi, who also had six rebounds and three steals while hitting 6 of 8 three-pointers.

"She is the heart of the team and has great talent. But for me the most important thing is that even though she is a star she listens to the coaches like she's a rookie," said Greek coach Konstantinos Missas about Maltsi.

Missas was smiling while talking to reporters and watching his players do the traditional Greek dance on the court after the victory.

"We're Greeks. That's our passion," said the coach.

"Whooo! We are so ... I really don't have words. It's so important what happened today. We're so excited, we deserve this. We showed character, we showed passion," said Papamichail.

"Sure we are not happy. We lost an opportunity today. For 30 minutes we played a very concentrated game. But we knew that if we left them something that they will take it immediately. We just lost our game," said Italian coach Giampiero Ticchi.

"We played very good in this championship and have to take all the good things we did for the future."
Laura Macchi was the only Italian player to score in double figures with 22 points while Simona Ballardini and Marte Alexander both scored nine points.

Italy built leads of four and five points in the first quarter in going ahead 15-10. But Maltsi hit three-pointers to start and finish a 13-0 run spanning the first and second quarter for a 23-15 advantage early in the second quarter.

But Ticchi's team turned up their defensive pressure and held Greece scoreless for almost six minutes as Italy went on a 10-0 run for a 27-25 lead.

The Italians were ahead 29-27 at intermission.

Greece were within 37-34 before Alexander scored four points on one possession in an 8-0 run to give Italy their biggest lead of the game at 45-34 with 2:47 left in the third.

"When we were 11 points down, we found our heart and stayed concentrated. And we believed we would win this game," said Missas.

Maltsi drained a three-pointer and Lolita Limoura hit a lay-up - her first points of the tournament - to make it 46-40 after three periods.

The Greeks played zone defense in the fourth quarter and Italy could not solve it, going scoreless for four minutes. Kalentzou's jumper knotted the game at 50-50 with four minutes left.

"When it was 50-50, I knew that we would win this game," said Missas.

Maltsi knocked down a three-ball and then Kalentzou hit a driving lay-up and assisted a Papamichail lay-up as Greece opened a 58-52 advantage with 35 seconds left.

And Papamichail's lay-up with 10 seconds to play iced the game at 60-54.

Giampero Ticchi, Italy Head Coach
 
"We played a very good championship and we need to take this experience to the next championship."

Kostas Missas, Greece Head Coach
 
"We showed patient and hard work and we did it, we're going to the World Championship."

The victor also clinches a berth at the 2011 EuroBasket in Poland - a big step for both teams as well.
While both Greece and Italy came in with this double qualification for 2010 and 2011 as the main goal, neither really expected to be playing in Saturday's second game.

Giampiero Ticchi's Italians have already clinched their best EuroBasket Women showing since taking silver in 1995.

Konstantinos Missas meanwhile has already secured Greece their best-ever women placing, topping their ninth place at home in 2003.

Head-to-Head: Italy won both previous match-ups, winning a qualifier in 1999 and 65-55 at the 2007 EuroBasket Women in Italy.

Last Time Out: Greece fought past Slovakia 64-59 to reach the fifth place game. And Italy set up the match-up by beating hosts Latvia 68-66 in overtime.

Key Match-Up: Greece's Evanthia Maltsi vs. Simona Ballardini of Italy.  Maltsi is the tournament's leading scorer with 22.1 points per game for the tournament's lowest-scoring team (58.6 ppg). With Greece relying so much on each offensive possession, Ballardini can ill afford to give up easy baskets to Maltsi, who has proven she can score on anybody.

Key Stats: 56.8. Through eight games, Greece is even with Spain in first place for the fewest points allowed per game with 56.8. Missas's team has held opponents to under 60 points for the past four games.

X-Factor: Marte Alexander.  The Italian center has been extremely effective during stretches and she will need another strong showing in the blocks against the smaller Greeks. But the 33-year-old has been fighting some wear and tear of nine games in 14 days.

Sounding Off: "At this moment Greece are better than us. I told (my players) that after the game. Now we have to show that we can play against one of the best defenses at this tournament. But after this game maybe they have respect us more." Italy coach Giampiero Ticchi