EUROPEAN BASKETBALL : Croatia Rips Greece, Wins the Bronze

Croatia routed Greece, 99-59, Saturday to win the bronze medal in the European basketball championships.

Earlier, Spain defeated Estonia, 119-80, to win fifth place and a berth in next year’s world championships at Toronto.

Croatia, the tournament favorite, rebounded from a bitter loss to Russia in Friday’s semifinals with a strong performance against Greece.

Stojan Vrankovic, Croatia’s 7-foot-1 center, had 12 points, 14 rebounds and 10 blocked shots.

Croatia opened the second half with a 13-2 run and Greece cleared its bench.

“Once they saw they had no chance against us, they just let up,” Vrankovic said.

Guard Velimir Perasovic led Croatia with 34 points, making all four of his three-point attempts. Dino Radja, the Croatian forward-center who is heading to the Boston Celtics of the NBA, had 16 points and seven rebounds.

Guard Panagiotis Giannakis had 15 points for Greece.

Croatia, the Olympic silver medalist, was competing in its first European championships since it seceded from Yugoslavia in 1991.