Spain stroll past Slovenia 86 – 64; Reach the last four in FIBA EuroBasket - Part 2
Link for Part-1: http://www.senore.com/Spain-stroll-past-Slovenia-86-64-Reach-the-last-four-in-FIBA-EuroBasket-Part-1-a97526
The real damage was done after the interval. Spain produced a blistering display that totally blew Slovenia out of the water. After scoring 35 points in the complete first half, Spain ran wild for 36 in the third quarter alone.
In response, Slovenia could only manage 14 points in what produced to be a morale shattering period. Juan Carlos Navarro was simply on fire in after the interval and outscored Slovenia on his own in the third period with 17 points.
It seemed like whenever Spain took a shot, it hit the target and their opponents simply failed to cope.
The quarter ended at 71 – 45 to Spain, and Slovenia probably knew that the match had gone.
They came out to get some consolation in the final quarter and to their credit piled 9 points without reply. Spain just took their foot off the gas and strolled through the last ten minutes, knowing the game had been secured already.
Pau Gasol and Serge Ibaka featured prominently for Spain as they played out the game while Goran Dragic grabbed some points for Slovenia before time ran out.
The final score read 86 – 64 to Spain, who had been overwhelming favourites coming into the game.
The Spaniards connected on 31 of their 63 total field goal attempts while Slovenia made 25 of 72. Spain were more accurate from both within and beyond the three point line. Slovenia had a better percentage from free throws but
Spain attempted almost twice as many of those. Slovenia were also outrebounded 47 – 32 by Spain who had strong NBA big men in Pau, Marc Gasol and Ibaka.
Slovenia Head Coach Bozidar Maljkovic commented after the game that even though it looked good for his side at the start, he always knew they would have to keep playing at a very high level throughout in order to win. Bozidar lamented
the catastrophic third quarter as the time when the game slipped away from Slovenia.
“We started the game the way we wanted. We played tough defence. We moved the ball well. All in all we did a good job. That helped us to stay in the game. In the third quarter they scored 36 points and that's much more than what
we can allow. We didn't do our job on defence in the second half. We needed to play good for 40 minutes in order to handle Spain, but we played well for less time and that's why we lost.”
Guard Goran Dragic echoed the sentiments of his coach,
“It was a very tough game for us. We played well in the first half and were in a good position, but after the half time break we made too many turnovers. After that it was tough to match-up with Spain. “
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