Bosnia surprise Croatia

An incredible shooting percentage in the first period got Croatia off to a great start as they put Bosnia down by 10 points after only six minutes of play (17-8). Bosnia then started the fightback with some solid defence and scored the last 10 points of the quarter, including a buzzer shot by Matea Tavic to tie the game at the end of the first period. Bosnia’s run continued in the second quarter and put them in front for the first time. Croatia’s head coach, Marija Mazija, calmed down her players and put a 2-3 zone in place which immediately slowed down the Bosnian advance. As a result the players’ confidence returned as they played on equal terms for most of the time until a lack of concentration or tiredness towards the end of the period allowed Bosnia to push up their advantage to 10 points at the interval.

Croatia was not able to break Bosnia’s zone and fell further behind as the game continued leaving the way free for Bosnia to score at will to win the match (73-49) and top the group. Bosnia enter the qualifying round with maximum points and have now two days’ rest before the qualifying round begins.

Bosnia’s coach, Jadranca Savic, comments: “Today’s match was a hard game against Croatia. They have a wonderful basketball tradition and we knew it would be hard and the final result is flattering to us because we were under pressure all the time but we coped. So I think we deserved the victory.
It is nice to be first in the group but our plan was to take one game after another and access the situation. But of course I am happy with our two wins and that we are first in the group. After a light training session tomorrow the players will have a day off and relax a bit to recover their energy before we start the work on the next phase and get them focused again.”

Full statistics are available at here