Croatia convincingly defeated Slovenia ba 108:92 in the first game of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
In the second possession, Luka Doncic and Josh Nebo showed how dangerous their collaboration can be for the rival, but an attractive dunk by Milano’s new center was all that was seen from Slovenia in the first five minutes. On the other side, Croatia opened the duel excellently, mostly thanks to Dario Saric, in order to quickly reach a double-digit lead (18:7).
Josip Sesar’s team did not stop in the second quarter either. On the contrary, they played even better, with very good shooting percentages, as well as the inside domination of Ivica Zubac. It was felt that Doncic was tired, which Croatia used in the right way.
Aleksander Sekulic’s team came close to minus 10 at the beginning of the second half, but the opponent quickly repelled that rush and very quickly went to more than 20 points ahead. A lot of ill-conceived actions and hasty solutions graced Slovenia in that period and it seemed that they were slowly giving up on fighting harder for win.
The clash was marked by a slightly longer break due to technical problems in the hall, which hurt Sesar’s team more than Slovenia. However, Croatia was not shaken by that either, so they reached the maximum plus 25, and then brought the match to an end without any tension. In this way, this team registered a great win and has a good chance to secure the next stage, probably from the first position.
The most deserving for that were Filipovic with 21 and Saric with triple double – 19 points 10 rebounds, 10 assists, while Slovenia was led by Doncic with 26 points, but with poor shooting percentages – 8/23 from the field, 0/9 for three, but he collected 11 rebounds, and 10 assists.
Croatia will play against New Zealand tomorrow at 4:30 p.m. and in case of win, they will secure the leading position before the semifinals. Slovenia is free.
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