Div B: Slovenia stun Bosnia and Herzegovina and qualify for semi-final

Slovenia became the first team to book their spot in the semi-finals of the Termosteps U16 European Championship Women with a hard fought victory (77-69) over Bosnia and Herzegovina in group E.

The turning point of the match occurred when Slovenia overhauled Bosnia with a 10-0 run after trailing for most of the game in an exciting game with plenty of twists and turns.

The contest Nika Baric and Matea Tavic, two members of the 2006 edition of the European championship all-tournament team, was off from the first minute of the match with both play-makers in the mist of the action. Both players had 7 points each at the end of the first period with Bosnia leading (16:14).

The pace and intensity changed at the top of the second quarter with Slovenia alternating between man to man and zone against the traditional 2-3 zone of Bosnia. The game sea-sawed: first Slovenia had a period of dominance followed by Bosnia who opened up the first big lead of the match (32-19) and then Slovenia came charging back (32-27). Both sides changed systems all the time until Damir Grgic, Slovenia’s head coach, had enough and called a time-out (36-34) due to the fact that Lea Jagodic was already sitting on the bench with four fouls. Whatever he said had an immediate effect as Nika Baric tied the game (36-36) but Bosnia managed to score the last basket to go into the interval leading (38-36) and with Baric on 19 and Tavic on 13 points.

A poor 3rd quarter ended in quality as both sides gave a display of their running game that drove the coaches mad but was pleasant to watch for the neutrals. Tamara Kapor was having a solid game and Anesa Hamsic was popping up to clear up the mess in the middle for Bosnia and taking some pressure of Tavic, while Sandra Japundza became more involved offensively for Slovenia (52-58). Lea Jagodic (Slovenia) was brought back into the match despite her four fouls

Slovenia was trailing by 4 points coming into the last quarter, but Tjasa Gortnar and Lea Jagodic turned the match round by scoring combined 21 points out of the 25 for this quarter and Slovenia won (77-69). Nika Baric finished with a game-high of 27 points for Slovenia, while Matea Tavic for Bosnia with 20 and Tamara Kapor with 21 points.

Damir Grgic, the head coach of Slovenia, had the following to say about today’s match: “I don’t think it was a good match for us. We took too long to get into it and it was not until the final quarter that we finally started to play our game. Our players showed a little bit too much respect for the opposition, but in the end, once they forgot what was at stake they started to play to the best of their ability and took the pressure of Nika Baric. It is great for Slovenia Basketball that we are in the semi-final and tomorrow we can rest some players before the semi-final.”

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