Croatia and Serbia need only one more victory for their way to Rio

Friday, 08. July 2016 at 23:06

Croatia and Serbia have beaten Greece and the Czech Republic, respectively, in the Semi-finals of the Turin and Belgrade Olympic Qualifying Tournaments and have both reached the finals. Only one more victory needed to qualify for the Olympic Basketball Tournament in Rio de Janeiro!

Croatia and Serbia have beaten Greece and the Czech Republic, respectively, in the Semi-finals of the Turin and Belgrade Olympic Qualifying Tournaments and have both reached the finals. Only one more victory needed to qualify for the Olympic Basketball Tournament in Rio de Janeiro!

Croatia have proven that they are serious with their intention to reach the tournament finals, as they have gone off to a flying start, which gave them a 24-point lead already in the first half. However, this did not mean that the game was over, since the Greeks managed to turn it around in the second half and they even took the lead.

Aco Petrović's players did not allow themselves to be destabilised by the opponents" comeback and they fought hard in the final minutes in order to get the advantage once again and - they managed to keep it until the end. The final score of the game is 66:61 and Bojan Bogdanović was once again the top scorer with 20 points on his account, while Dario šarić added 20.

Serbia"s game was far less dramatic, since the fans in the Belgrade Arena have witnessed a one-way traffic since the very beginning until the end of the game against Czech Republic. The home squad have gone up on a 9-point lead in the opening quarter and kept increasing their lead until the end when the scoreboard has shown result 96:72.

Former Partizan NIS player Bogdan Bogdanović led the way in scoring for Serbia with 21 points, while former Mega Leks big man Nikola Jokić had 19.

In the final of Turin Olympic Qualifying Tournament Croatia will face Italy, while Serbia will face Purto Rico in the final of Belgrade Olympic Qualifying Tournament. In case each of them win, they will qualify for the Olympic Basketball Tournament in Rio de Janeiro.

Turin Olympic Qualifying Tournament Semi-finals, Friday, 8.7.2016:

Greece - CROATIA 61:66 (13:31, 21:13, 15:8, 12:14)

Perperoglou 13, Papapetrou and Antetokounmpo 9; Bogdanović 20, šarić 16.

Belgrade Olympic Qualifying Tournament Semi-finals, Friday, 8.7.2016:

SERBIA - Czech Republic 96:72 (26:17, 19:19, 28:22, 23:14)
Bogdanović 21, Jokić 19; Satoransky 14, Vesely 12.
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