By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Mario Hezonja was disappointed over Croatia’s eliminating loss to France in the 2025 EuroBasket Qualifiers but grateful to experience playing in a fiery atmosphere in Jazine arena, Zadar.
“This is the best day of my life,” Hezonja said per Basketball Sphere. “I’m sorry we didn’t win today. What can I say about Zadar? As a kid, I played there several times. It was my dream to play as a senior in front of my people, in front of my fans. I’ve never experienced this in my life. We’ll never stop, we keep going and we’ll fight until the end.”
Hezonja finished with 37 points (10-23 shots) and 11 rebounds. He wasn’t satisfied with how he performed down the stretch as Croatia didn’t manage to complete a comeback from down 15 points.
“I screwed up at the end, I didn’t hit those shots at the end, I don’t know what it’s about,” Hezonja said. “We couldn’t ‘buy’ a three-pointer in this match. We’ve been training well these days, we’ve been in a shooting mood a lot, but that’s how it is… Thank you to everyone who came, and supported us. As I said before the game, the Croatian national team has no business being in another hall, I think this should become our home. This is the temple of our basketball and I think we should build our future here.”
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“These are the French, the guys are second at the Olympics,” Hezonja added. “They could come with the second, fifth, or eighteenth team, there’s no need to talk about the breadth of their roster. I even played with some of those guys, I know they can play, they are extremely physically fit and I think that was the advantage.”