Germany advanced to the Eurobasket Round of 16 by beating Italy 61-55 and will now face Lithuania tomorrow for first place in Group B. Dennis Schroder again played lead fiddle for the Germans as the Atlanta Hawks guard scored 17 points while Johannes Voightmann added 12 points. The Italians shot a miserable 31% from the floor as Marco Belinelli had a tough game scoring 12 points while hitting only 2/9 from beyond the arc.

Chris Fleming:
“How you react after a loss is how you see the character of the team. We came out and competed as a unit. Good contributions early from Tadda and Voightmann. We were better but still have room to grow. We have a chance to play for first place in the group. I’m very proud of the guys.”

Playing for first place against Lithuania:
“We have to come back and focus on a totally different team. We will play against a tough team and get enjoyment out of playing that game will say a lot of how far this program has come. We are pretty excited to have that opportunity to challenge ourselves against such a good team.”

Danilo Barthel in the keys to the win:
“We didn’t let Belinelli and Datome into the game and the wing guys did a great job with that.”

Dennis Schroder:
“It’s for the top of the group and we will compete for the win. Lithuania will be doing the same and it’s going to be a war. People doubted us and said we weren’t a good team, but I like the motivation and to prove everybody wrong. I’m happy we did that. We had dinner together and came together. It was a good move by the coach and the organization. We came out and competed.”

Nicolo Melli on the loss:
“We didn’t play a good game by putting pressure on ourselves that we didn’t need. We have to do a better job tomorrow. Georgia is a very good team.”

Ettore Messina:
“We played a mediocre game against a very discplined team and we deserved to lose. I felt the pressure that Nicolo mentioned and usually we are a patent team while we were unpatient against Germany.”