FIBA EuroBasket 2011 Day 4 Review – Croatia edge Montenegro; Russia dominate Belgium: Part-3
Croatia 87 - Montenegro 81
After a shock defeat to Macedonia in the last game, the Croatians were looking to make amends on Saturday night. They certainly started like it.
They started the game with all guns blazing and after opening the frame with a 8-2 run, they raced away to a 24-16 lead after the first 10 minutes. Montenegro cut the lead to four early in the second, but the Croatians again powered their way to a nine point lead in the fourth minute. Montenegro struck back again though and narrowed the deficit down to 46-42 at the break.
Croatia hit the ground running in the third quarter and with 4:31 remaining in the frame; they opened up a 15 point lead at 60-45. However, the tenacious Montenegro team crept back yet again and showed only seven down, 67-60, after three. Montenegro continued to climb back and came within three in the last minutes of the regulation, before Ante Tomic, Marko Popovic and Dontaye Draper – the big three of Croatia – combined to pull off the win.
Ante Tomic topped all the scorers on the night with 26 points and eight rebounds. Marko Popovic racked up 23 points on a 7-of-11 shooting from the three point range while Dontaye Draper finished the game with 12 assists.
Montenegro was led by Goran Jeretin, who scored 18 points while Vladimir Dragicevic chipped in with 17.
Russia 79 - Belgium 58
On Saturday night, Russia maintained their perfect record in the championship with a 79-58 win over Belgium in a Group D encounter. The Russian are now tied with Slovenia at the top of the table while Belgium are at the bottom with three losses in as many games.
The night belonged to the Russian bench. Spearheaded by Vitaliy Fridzon’s, who pounded 22 points and Andrey Vorontsevich‘s 17, the reserves put up 53 of the 79 points Russia scored on the night. Vorontsevich scored all his points in the first three quarters of the game. After that it was a one-way traffic as Russian bludgeoned their way to the win. After a relatively close first half, the Russians built a double-digit lead in the third quarter and then blew the Belgians away 22-10 in the last 10 minutes.
They dominated the Belgians in all the facets of the game. Russians out-rebounded Belgium 39-32, out assisted them 21-11, had four less turnovers and shot at nearly 50 percent as compared to a 40.3 percent effort form their opponents.
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