By Niki Bakouli/ bakouli@eurohoops.net
The first quarter ended with Slovenia getting a comfortable 18 points lead over Serbia (28-10) and that was the story of the classification game which send the Eurobasket hosts to compete for the fifth place of the final standings and also gave them the ticket to FIBA World Cup.
Slovenia got the 92-74 win and reacted admirably after losing to France in their quarterfinals clash. Zoran Dragic scored 23 points and had 9 rebounds for the winners, while Nenad Krstic had 16 points for Serbia. The players of coach Dusan Ivkovic will have one last chance to get their World Cup ticket in the classification game for the seventh spot in the final standings.
“The game was very tough for us, we only had 14 hours to prepare but we played together a great game, we played like we must play on defence, very well on offence too and fortunately we won the game,” said Zoran Dragic.