By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Cologne, Germany – After the loss to Germany in Round 2 of the EuroBasket, Bosnia has an uphill battle ahead in order to preserve its chances to qualify to the knockout phase.
There’s not just one or two but three powerhouses that Bosnia will face and try to get wins from: Lithuania, France and defending champion Slovenia, coming up next. It’s a huge challenge but young star Dzanan Musa is hopeful that his team will put up a fight and manage to bounce back.
“We respect everybody but we aren’t afraid of anybody,” Musa said. “We know that these are great teams but everything is still open in the Group. So we will fight against this challenge.”
“We think that we are underdogs in this Group,” Musa added. “We accept the role. but we’ll fight to the end and show we can play basketball and we should go to the next round. we’ll give our everything.”
Musa delivered a fantastic performance against Germany with a game-high 30 points on 11-17 shots. He and Jusuf Nurkic (21 points, eight rebounds) were the ones responsible for Bosnia leading 42 – 47 at halftime.
Everything turned upside down after the break when Germany went on a 12-0 run. Musa seemed to get hurt near the end of the third period with the score 65 – 58 and went to the bench limping a bit. During his absence, Bosnia fell behind 77 – 60.
When Musa returned to the floor, his presence forced Germany’s defense to spread thin. The new Real Madrid wing dunked in transition to begin a Bosnia comeback and then John Roberson took action with three triples as their team approached 82 – 76 with 3:41 remaining.
Germany held on and retook a double-digit lead down the stretch to secure the win.
“We just didn’t stick to our game plan,” Musa explained. “I think we could’ve done things better, especially on defense. I think we have to learn from our mistakes in the next games because we have three really really tough games vs. Lithuania, France and Slovenia tomorrow. We can’t have the mistakes we did today. I think if we solve our problems we will have some really good chances. ”
“The first 20 minutes were on our side and the next 20 minutes were on their side,” Musa said. “We have to be proud of the way we fought. Everyone of the guys gave everything on the floor and we will continue to do so. ”
Next stop is Slovenia for Musa and the rest of the Bosnian squad. He smiled when asked if he’s eager for a particular matchup (call me Luka Doncic), mentioning that there are more weapons than the Mavericks star in the reigning champions’ arsenal.
“Every game is just another game for us. They have a great team besides Luka. They have very good players and we should be prepared for everybody. We will come with the same energy and we will fight until the end.”