By Rigas Dardalis/ dardalis@eurohoops.net
Bojan Bodganovic scored 18 points and Croatia got the 76-68 win over Italy that can prove to be more than important for its qualification to the quarterifinals. Eurobasket 2013 is full of upsets so far, however the players of coach Repesa were clear the better team in the game, despite Gigi Datome’s great 23 point effort.
After this result Croatia has a 3-1 record, while Italy is left at 2-2 and despite its two wins from the first round, it’s in danger of missing the quarterfinals. The Italians had the lead at the end of the first half by five point (36-31), but after the third quarter Croatia had a 57-45 advantage that proved to be enough for the win.
Croatian center Ante Tomic said after the game: “It’s a great feeling to play for our fans because they are here for us and we need to give them what they came here for. But the other reason for the six-game winning streak is between us, because we said before the championship ‘come on guys, this is our year, we need to do something special this time’.”