By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
Showing great character even after seeing their 24-point lead, established in the second quarter, being reduced to ash, the Croatian national team bettered Greece 66 – 61 and advanced to the Final of the Olympic Qualifying Tournament of Turin. This was the first victory of Croatia against Greece since 1995!
Dario Saric displayed his craft by scoring 16 points, grabbing 8 rebounds and rising up to the occasion in moments when his team was in urgent need of buckets. He made only one turnover in the 38 minutes he stayed on court. Krunoslav Simon added 11 and 8 rebounds of his own.
The only player who scored in double-digit numbers from Greece was Stratos Perperoglou, who finished the match with 13 points, while Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 9 points, but with a poor with 3/14 from the field.
Greece was disappointing in the majority of the game, lacking an effective offensive plan and shooting horribly from behind the arc (8/34). Their opponents took advantage of the latter in order to multiply their scoring opportunities, especially in the first 15 minutes of the game.
Thanks to this raging start, Croatia got ahead in the score 37 – 13 (!), in the second period. Coach Katsikaris’ players fought back and began chewing more and more pieces of their deficit. With some personal efforts of Perperoglou and Bourousis in the third quarter, they turned the game completely upside down, gaining 48 – 46 lead.
Croatia reacted though, managing to pull up some difficult baskets. When they re-assumed control of the game they never give it up since Greece’s energy tanks looked depleted and its players made one wrong offensive choice after the other.
When Bojan Bogdanovic sank a buzzer beating three-pointer for the 62 – 51, with four minutes to go, things have gotten their course to the final result.