After struggling to win against one of the worst teams in the tournament on Saturday, Croatia turned it all around a day later, beating one of the pre-tournament favorites Argentina 90-85. Croatia shot 56% from the field, allowing them to overcome Luis Scola’s 28 point performance for Argentina.
Croatia got off to a hot start for the second game in a row, surging out to a 12-2 lead after just three minutes. With Krunoslav Simon and Bojan Bogdanovic hitting from downtown and Ante Tomic setting some solid screens, Croatia shot over 60% in the first quarter and led 28-20 after one. Argentina’s quality started to show in the second quarter, as Croatia’s lead disappeared in less than three minutes. They managed to claw back ahead before the half, and went in up 48-46. Both sides held their ground through most of the third quarter before Croatia pulled away towards the end, taking a 75-63 lead. Argentina put up a fight in the fourth, but some clutch shots down the stretch from Roko Ukic and Luka Zoric were enough to see them come out on top.
Kruno Simon led the team with 18 points, and Dario Saric and Bojan Bogdanovic both added 16 points, with Saric picking up 9 rebounds and Bogdanovic grabbing eight. After turning the ball over more than 20 times against the Philippines, Croatia had just nine against Argentina.
Next up for Croatia will be Senegal, as they play their third game in three days. Senegal pulled off a surprise win today over Puerto Rico and should not be underestimated by the Croatian side. They are led by Minnesota Timberwolf Gorgui Dieng and Mouhammad Faye.
Too ambitious for croatia into thinking of faring good against the top team in next round if they struggle against two lowly and newbie team in phil and badly lost against senegal. Stop dreaming and face the reality.
Repesa is solid but not excellent.
19 seconds down by three NO TIMEOUT called, Simon comes down and takes a contested three air ball.
All game our out of bounds sets were creating WIDE open shots.
Hezonja starts ? Hasn’t played all tournament. Needs to come off bench and if he is hot then let him rock.
Tomić is a tin man, NO HEART.
I say start Zoric and go small when needed.
Rudez is in a NBA fear funk?
Lafayette needs to play in crunch time.
Jebi ga.
Let’s beat Greece on Wednesday.
@ Ivica
Need to avoid Spain as much as possible.
@Ličan,
I didnt catch the game 3:30am my time. The worst possible time.
Looking ahead, it would be nice to top the group, then we would meet Spain in the semis instead of the quarters. However, Round of 16 and quarters and quarters wont be a cake walk.
I have spain and usa in the final. The rest are playing for the bronze. Why not us?
None of this preliminary round stuff really matters since we cross over with the toughest group in the tournament.
The top four teams in our opposing Group A are going to be any combination of France, Spain, Serbia, and a very NBA-stacked Brazil. All four teams are equally difficult, and our path to the quarters, semis, and finals forces us in having to beat out ALL of these teams (as they, unfortunately, structured it like this for the knockout phase).
So long as we win one more game in this preliminary round, we’ll clinch a spot for the knockout round. I’ll reserve judgement when the stakes are high, during the knockout phase when the real tournament begins.
No point in topping your group if you’re just going to lose to 4th placed France in the other group immediately after.
and we lose to fucking senegal. wtf
@Poglavnik
Anytime I can help out a high school dropout like you and Cico. Keep it simple for you both to understand. 🙂
Cico
You are the only one sick, give it a rest. This game was Sramota because they could not hold onto a lead.
it just shows how Croatia is over rated……they also struggled against the most diminutive and first timer squad the Philippines….props to Senegal for proving Croatia is the most over rated team in World Cup Fiba 2014..
Fuck!! How good is Senegal?? Denis?? I thought we would win this game!!
any cunt who wants to watch us smash SENEGAL its on now, just started:
http://firstrowau.eu/watch/279359/1/watch-croatia-vs-senegal.html
Croatia was lucky as they have the referee’s full support which served as their sixth man inside the court en route to a undeserving win against the Phils…..
How in the Hell Don’t we fall back & make a Wall in the last 4 ect min . vs. G nk ? Something is Very , Very WRONG ! Even Little Ayso Kids Know This ! The Payday must have Been Huge ! Fucken Spielberg could have not Writen a better Ending ! Sramota & 1/2 ! Mamic must have more Kunas then we Know ! If they catch the HNK players that were involved in this , they Should be Banned & Forced to live in Mamic/dinamos Basement !! Sick Man & Sick League ! I Hope Not , but it Looks More & More like it ! SAD Very Sad ! SRAMOTA !!! Bog Help Us Hrvati , i HNL !!!
Lord o Lord Help Us ! WTF was That ? HAET is Back !^ !
^ ^
Enlightening stuff!
Truth? Get over it. Your team lost. Plain and simple they were awful today.
As for Rijeka they could of scored another six today. Looks like Rijeka and Dinamo for first.
Not the Basketball , but the HNL has Had it’s last Day’s of any Truth !!
SRAMOTA !! More to Come !!
Ziva would like to know when the Croatian cheerboys will be on for the Cro games? Any ideas ?He has locked himself in the basement and refuses to come out.
Our basketball team plays with more heart than our nogomet team does. Too bad we can’t find a Repesa in Croatian soccer.
Faaaaak!
More pictures of those cheerleaders please!
Making the win more impressive is that the officiating was one-sided. Some horrible foul calls.
We had slow-footed Zoric trying to cover Scola one-on-one. Is Repesa aware that you’re allowed to double-team? When he finally got some help in the 2nd half, it made a big difference.
Reports are that Lafayette suffered a concussion. He had some big time shots in the 3rd quarter and did a nice job setting up plays.
Hajduk has only themself to blame. Congrats Dinamo amazing comeback.
Ante,
I’m not a Torcidas, but I am a Hajdukovac. Hajduk is a laughable team.
Team needs to be privatized. But that will never happen. Too many criminal pigs eating out of that trough.
Dinamo has ONE criminal. A sposoban one, at that. Hajduk has countless pigs. But they’re rank criminals.
Of course they are silent. Imagine if they won it would never stop.
hahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHHASHhahahabahabababhahahaha
Oh that’s going to leave a mark. That has to hurt. Someone keep an eye on Cico.
What is this. All quiet on the Torcida front?!
Psssssssssst Torca spava
Lol @ Hajduk
Of course, they humiliate themselves and lose the game in injury time. Fucking Hajduk.
@ Zach
Your coverage is as consistent as Bogdanović and his scoring. Svaka ti čast .
Bogdanović is a handful to guard. He is the premier power perimeter player in the tournament.
Šarić competes like a beast and when that 3 ball is working he is tough to guard.
Zoric is my MVP for this one as his fishing down the stretch put us over and although Scola put on a clinic he kept him controlled in the last minutes.
Need to Hezonja against Senegal at the 3, Bogdanović at the 4 and Šarić at the 5 for some stretches. We get too slow on d and have limited fast break points.