22.06.2011

Montenegro Make It Four In A Row!

Turning Point: Having trailed by 16 points in the second quarter, Croatia did well to cut the deficit 53-45 with less than three minutes to go in the third stanza before Montenegro went on a 20-3 run (73-48) en route to their fourth victory in as many games.

Game Hero: Montenegro got a huge contribution from Jelena Dubljevic.
She finished with 16 points, pulled down 10 rebounds, dished out seven assists and came up with two steals.

Stats Don't Lie: Montenegro had four players finish in double figures, including Iva Perovanovic, who had a game-high 25 points and hauled down 15 rebounds. Croatia went to the free-throw line just once in the first half but finished eight-for-11 (73%) from the charity stripe. Montenegro out-rebounded Croatia, 54-34.

Montenegro weren't at their best but still marched to another victory at the EuroBasket Women on Wednesday on the opening day of Round 2 action in Katowice.

Iva Perovanovic tore apart Croatia in the early going, scoring 15 of her game-high 25 points in the first quarter, and Montenegro cruised to an 81-60 victory.

Perovanovic, one of the standout performers in the competition so far, ended up with 15 rebounds.

If the 1.88m center tormented Croatia in the first quarter when her team built a 24-17 lead, Jelena Dubljevic turned on the style in the second.

In that frame, she poured in seven of her 16 points and also pulled down five of her 10 rebounds.

Croatia were their own worst enemy because countless times Stipe Bralic's players penetrated into the lane for uncontested lay-ups but missed most of them.

They were also off target with numerous open jump shots.

When it was over, they had hit six of 23 from long range and just 17 of 46 inside the arc.

Sandra Mandir, the 33-year-old captain who beat Greece in Group C with a drive down the lane at the end of regulation, finished with 14 points, seven assists and four rebounds against Montenegro.

The only other player to reach double figures for Croatia was Luca Ivankovic, who had 12 points in 16 minutes off the bench.

Montenegro have now mathematically qualified for for the Quarter-Finals.

Croatia had only a single victory in Group D and therefore have just three points in Group F.

 

22.06.2011

Quotes Croatia vs. Montenegro

Montenegro Head Coach Miodrag Baletic:
"I am very happy because I have a team that loves basketball. I have intelligent players, who show a lot of courage and will. Today we played the easiest way for us and although we had some problems early on, we took care of business. I am satisfied because we have taken one step closer to being at the top of the elite of women´s basketball."

Montenegro Forward Jelena Dubljevic:
"I thought we did a good job on defense and showed great confidence on offense. They played pick and roll for 40 minutes so it was different for us but we did great team work to get this win. Now we have a rest day and then we can think about our game against France."

Croatia Head Coach Stipe Bralic:
"Congratulations to Montenegro. They played great defense, very good offense and their passing was excellent. We, on the other hand, played badly. We had 20 rebounds less than Montenegro, we had poor defense. We had a big problem as we were without (injured) Ana Lelas and that hurt us a lot."

Croatia Guard Sandra Mandir:
"We tried to play our game but we didn´t succeed today. Montenegro are a very good and it was a hard game for us. We struggled in attack, we couldn´t score open shots and could not stop them. Congratulations to Montenegro, they were better than us and deserved the win."