Croatia will join 11 other European nations in the second round of Eurobasket 2013 after their 70-53 victory over the Czech Republic on Monday left them 4-1 and on top of their group alongside defending champions Spain. After a 28 point loss to Spain in their first game last week, Croatia rebounded to take three consecutive close games. An Ante Tomić layup with 9 seconds to go saw Croatia survive an upset from Georgia, winning 77-76 in their second game. In game three, 23 points from Bojan Bogdanović were enough for the Croats hold off a twenty point Polish comeback as they held on to win 74-70. Croatia were on the other end of a comeback in their fourth game, when they overccame a 13 point Slovenian lead to win 76-74 in an overtime thriller.
Their next task will be to finish in the top four of their group and advance to the quarterfinals. The top 6 teams not including Spain (hosts) will qualify for the FIBA World Championships, which take place next September. Croatia’s next three opponents are Finland, Italy, and Greece and the games will be played on the 12th, 14th, and 16th. Two wins are likely required to advance.
Bojan Bogdanović has led the team in scoring through five games, with an average of 17 points per game, and a field goal percentage of 48%. 17 year old Dario Šarić is contributing sic points per game, and has shot 67% from behind the arc thus far. Ante Tomić has dominated the boards, with eight rebounds per game. Bogdanović will need to keep his hot hand if Croatia are to advance to the knockout stages.
big win over finland.
Ukic is a solid lead guard, he has been dealing with a heal problem throughout the tournament.
Love the way this teams competes and plays together.
Bogdanovic is a legit NBA 2 guard and Saric can ball.
Add some more of our young talent to what Repsesa is building and we are going to be competitive for years to come.
Ukic is garbage! At least he was in the nba. Can’t shoot period!
@denis what about us, we only have ukic(if he still plays in the nba,not sure) and Bogdanovic who was drafted but im not sure if he ever even played one game in the nba and saric who withdrew from the draft i know that is better then one nba player but we arent off that much better either. Italy is undefeated in group play and greece im not too sure but might be 4-1 as well maybe and a deadly team too, it sure will be hard but firstly we need to get by Finland first and then upset greece in a overtime thriller 🙂
A good chance Croatia will face Serbia in a possible quarterfinal matchup. 30% chance or so.
Croatia has to take care of business against finland in the first game and then need a win against Italy or Greece. Italy is stronger but they only have one NBA star(Belinelli)
I watched the game against Georgia, we aren’t very good.
But good effort to win 4 games in a row. That Saric kid looks very impressive…
yay.. well done to the guys so far !
Pretty hilarious
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=B2kgJoqv1dY