Russia march into semi finals of FIBA EuroBasket with 77 – 67 victory over Serbia - Part 2
Serbia seemed fired up coming into the second half as they looked to get back into the game in the third quarter. The offence of the Serbs was much sharper in this period and they actually outscored Russia, the only quarter of
the game where they achieved it. However the defence was leaky again and the Serbs failed to take advantage of their good work on as they let in 20 points.
Nenad Krstic was the main weapon for Serbia during the third quarter but the Russians countered with an array of good team plays.
Serbia tried desperately to get into a lead in the final quarter but Russia proved to be too much for them. The Russians played sensible and safe basketball, taking advantage of their options and never let the gap lessen from 4
points.
In the end Serbia’s charge fell off and Russia capitalized on the weakness of their opponents to close out the game with a 10-point margin. The final score was 77 – 67 to Russia as Serbia never really threatened to pull out something
special, that was required to stop the Russian juggernaut.
The 9th straight win in the tournament for Russia came on the back of a superb team display. There were 4 players who got into double figures for points and another two who got close. In comparison, only two made it
into double figures.
Serbia actually shot a better average from the field than Russia, both from within and beyond the three-point line, but Russia took a lot more shots. They also got a number of stops in against the Serbs that hampered their momentum.
Russia dominated on the boards 37 to 28 and had almost the double the number of assists when compared to Serbia.
Serbia Coach Dusan Ivkovic congratulated his opponents on their victory after the match. He also touched on some of the reasons that caused Serbia to lose the game, including missing some key players through injury. Dusan also
expressed his determination to for the Olympics.
"I wish to congratulate Russia who were better tonight. They deserve this victory. The 10 point difference doesn't reflect the game as we were close to them for 40 minutes. Yet tonight was very difficult to play against them as
they scored so many points from second chances and our turnovers. 37 of their 77 points were from these two aspects and that's a lot. Tonight if we had more focus we could have won the game. We missed Rasic and Tepic due to injuries and it's very difficult
for us to organize our game without them, but it's not an excuse of course. “
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