Serbia Edges Slovakia, Will fight for Fifth place

Serbia 68 – Slovakia 67

Teams mostly traded baskets during the whole first half taking wrong choices of messing their shots. However Slovakia put ahead in the very first minute and was in front during the most of the first half. Serbia had problems to get its offense going since the Slovak outfit had a good defense on the powerful Serbian inside duo, Sara Krnjic and Tina Jovanovi adn Slovakia, lead by  Veronika Cernáková who scored 7 points ended the first 13-8 up. 

Slovakia got its biggest lead in the first minute of the second when Martina Kissová made it 17-8, reacting then Servia with a 6-0 run to make it 17-14 after the first 2:30 and from then the Serbs chipped Slovakia’s lead until they finally evened the score after six minutes after a three pointer from, 23-23, however Slovakia answered in the ensuing possession with a three point play from Kissová –a turnaround jumper- to make it 26-23 with 3:44 remaining to trade baskets again and reach the interval 34-31 for the home team.

Jovana Popovic kept Serbia in the game during the first minutes after the game, when the pointguard levelled the game again for the Serbs, 34-34, after 1:30 and then the trade begin again, with none of the teams being able to score easily in the next minutes. Finally, with 3:30 remaining in the quarter Latinka Dusanic from the perimeter put her team ahead for the first time in the game, 34-31. The traded continued then until a 6-0 run put Serbia six points up, 46-40, after another three pointer from Latinka Dusanic and then went back to trading again. Zoran Kovacic switched one on one and zone defenses in the second quarter but it was the zone defence played in the third stopped the Slovak offense and kept Serbia in front until the end of the third which ended 48-44.

Slovakia tied the game again after 3:14 in the fourth with a Jumper from Natalia Spodniaková, 52-52, but Serbia answered with five straight points to make it 57-52. Nevertheless Slovakia wasn’t ready to give in and closed the gap with some open shots until finally was Veronika Cernáková who put her team back in front, 67-66, from the perimeter with 1:03 remaining. Martina Kissová would block Sara Krnjic’s shot in the ensuing possession from Serbia. She wasn’t able to execute the next Slovak offense herself but grabbed the offensive rebound with 25 seconds remaining and Serbia began fouling since they weren’t in the bonus, until they finally sent Veronika Cernáková to the charity stripe. The guard didn’t score  and in the ensuing posession they fouled  Tina Jovanovic who gave victory to the serbs scoring the two freebies to make it 68-67.

Tina Jovanovic lead  Serbia with 19 pts and 14 boards, with 11 points from Latinka Dusanic and 7 pts and 8 boards from Sara Krnjic.

Slovakia’s Klaudia Lukacovicová had 16 pts and 11 boards, Martina Kissová added 19 points and Veronika Cernaková 16.