By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Behind 20 points and eight rebounds by Mateusz Ponitka and 15 by A.J.Slaughter, Poland got the crucial 77-69 road win against Croatia and kept the hosts out of the FIBA World Cup.
Poland has a 7-4 record which can prove good enough for a ticket in China, while Croatia with a 4-7 record in Group J missed their final chances, one round before the end of the FIBA World Cup qualifiers.
A total of 21 points by Filip Kruslin was not enough for Croatia, which collapsed under pressure and scored just two points in the last four minutes of the game, giving the chance to Poland to end things with a 10-2 run.
It has to be noted that while Croatia missed their biggest NBA and EuroLeague stars for the most of the FIBA Windows, Bojan Bogdanovic, Dario Saric and Ivica Zubac played for their national team during the last summer, but couldn’t save the day.