Sweden Pulls Away From Serbia In Second Half Sweden 61-Serbia 42

Serbia quit again, this time in the second half, and Sweden comfortably took the game 61-42. However in the first half Zoran Kovacic’s team showed they can change things when they put their will on it. Sweden came out strong in defense, controlling the boards, and stopping Serbia, allowing them only 7 points in the first, forcing Kovacic to sit out her best player, Ivana Brajkovic due to foul trouble (three fouls in 8 minutes) counting on top of that with the return of Farhiya Adbi who scored 9 from her team 17 points in the first –including the last four to finish the first quarter 17-7 ahead.

With ten points down and with Brajkovic on bench the question was: When will they quit?

They didn’t quit so Fast this time. Brajkovic’s spot was taken by Snezana Colic who scored 9 pts for her team in the first 4:30 of the second and helped Serbia to get into two points, 26-24, with 2:30 remaining for the break after a freebie from Kaja Stankovic and leading to Fredrik Jolulamo.’s timeout. Sweden’s defense didn’t let Serbia score in that last minutes and a threepointer from Josefinf Vesterberg gave’em some air while heading the locker rooms 29-25 ahead.

After the break Sweden came out strong again, scoring an 8-0 run to regain double digit margin, 37-25, after 2:30 and their defense did the rest. First letting Serbia in just 5 pts in the third and Second, stopping Ivana Brajkovic –who would only score two points in the second half. Sweden would add ten points more to completa an overall 18-5 run to enter the fourth 47-30 ahead.

Farhiya Adbi started the fourth with a 2+1 play to put Sweden ahead, 50-30, and the game ended. With complete control of the game Sweden just traded with Serbia until the end of the game and Jolulamo moved its bench in order to begin preparing today’s game against Slovakia, getting the victory for 61-42.

Amanda Zahui was important again for Sweden with 19 pts and 7 boards and Farhiya Adbi added 16 pts and 7 boards.

For Serbia Snezana Colic scored 16 pts. Serbia lost the rebounding battle, 44-34.