Marko Tomas buried a
three-pointer with 3.1 seconds
remaining as Croatia stunned
Spain 85-84 to finish top of
Group B in Seville.The win,
achieved in Seville's San
Pablo Pavilion, gained partial
revenge for the Croatians who
were knocked out of EuroBasket
2005 by Spain in the
quarter-finals.The result also
put Portugal into t
more

Marko Tomas buried a
three-pointer with 3.1 seconds
remaining as Croatia stunned
Spain 85-84 to finish top of
Group B in Seville.The win,
achieved in Seville's San
Pablo Pavilion, gained partial
revenge for the Croatians who
were knocked out of EuroBasket
2005 by Spain in the
quarter-finals.The result also
put Portugal into the next
round, while eliminating
Latvia -- the team that beat
Croatia in the opening game,
85-77.Portugal upset Latvia on
Wednesday.'I'm really happy
that we qualified for the next
round with four points, that's
a big advantage for us,' said
Croatia coach Jasmin
Repesa.'But, at the same time,
we have to stay quiet and go
game by game because we've
seen many surprises already in
this championship. I believed
after the first big loss to
Latvia, that we would get to
Madrid. But I was worried how
we played then.'In a
EuroBasket which has had
several incredible finishes,
this one ranks near the
top.Croatia had trailed 50-40
at half time but returned to
the court after the break and
tightened up their
defense.Trailing 58-50, they
went on a 10-2 run to tie the
contest at 60 a piece.Davor
Kus, who hit a three-pointer
in that spurt, said: 'We
played a very poor first half
when they had 50 points, but
we were only down by 10.'We
said we had to improve on
defense and when we did that,
we were much more
aggressive.'Once they were
back on level terms, the
Croatians looked a far more
confident side.Leading 71-70,
Marko Banic struck with a
jumper in the lane and, after
Berni Rodriguez missed from
three-point range, Banic
struck again with a long-range
bomb.Gasol's game-high 26
points weren't enough to
secure top honours for Spain
in the groupPau Gasol, who had
a game-high 26 points to lead
Spain, missed and Croatia
darted to the other end where
Kus made a lay-up.Suddenly,
Spain looked as if they were
wobbling.However, the world
champions got a spark from
Gasol who dunked off a Felipe
Reyes miss to ignite an 11-0
run.And what's worth noting is
that Croatia have won without
some of the veterans who
didn't make themselves
available this year.Nikola
Vujcic, Dalibor Bagaric,
Gordan Giricek and Andrija
Zizic all declined.'Now our
first opponents will be
Israel,' Repesa said. 'And
that was big.'As for
Spain?'Losing was a
possibility because we are not
invincible,' admitted
Rodriguez. 'Now, we have to
work at the small details to
improve. In the next round, we
expect to get the most number
of victories.'Croatia
Basketball Spain EC Espana
Hrvatska Croatian Greece
Lithuania Serbia italy italia
slovenia slovenija milan
gurovic european championship
baloncanesto baloncesto real
madrid barcelona velimir
perasovic france croacia
hellas portugal germany turkey
nowitzky dirk pau gasol Russia
Israel Latvia spanjolska FIBA
criminal

Category Sports

Tags Croatia, Basketball, Spain, Espana, Hrvatska, Croatian, Greece, 2007, EC, Lithuania, Serbia, FIBA, eurobasket, France, Russia, Israel