24.06.2011

Croatia Eliminate Poland

Turning Point: Poland trailed 48-46 midway through the third quarter before Croatia scored 12 unanswered points to go 60-48 ahead with less than four minutes remaining. Poland reduced the deficit 62-54 but got no closer.

Game Hero: Croatia´s Sandra Mandir had 13 points and nine rebounds. She also dished out four assists and came up with one steal.

Stats Don´t Lie: Poland were out-rebounded, 47-36. Croatia were superior shooting the ball on the night. They finished 26-for-60 (43%) from the floor while the Poles were 19-for-68 (28%). Poland got just three points off Croatia´s 19 turnovers.

Croatia lived to fight another day by downing a disappointing Poland 64-56 on Friday night.

In the Round 2 Group F game, captain Sandra Mandir and big center Luca Ivankovic each had 13 points to lead a balanced Croatia attack.

Mandir, who beat Greece with a spinning drive in the lane at the death in their Group D encounter, also had nine rebounds.

Croatia will now take on Spain on Sunday with the stakes very high.

The likelihood is that the winner of the game will move on to the next round.

If France were to lose their remaining two Group F games and Croatia were to beat Spain, all three sides would be level and a tie-breaker would be used to determine the third- and fourth-place teams in the pool.

EuroBasket Women hosts Poland saw their faint hopes of progressing die with their fourth defeat in this summer's competition.

Croatia led from start to finish on Friday and shot the ball well, particularly in the first quarter when drilling 10 of their 16 shots from the floor, to go in front by as many as nine.

Poland managed to stay within striking distance, however, and only trailed 44-38 at half-time with Ewelina Kobryn's eight points leading the team.

Darius Maciejewski watched and cringed as Poland endured a long scoring draught in the second half, one that lasted almost 11 minutes.

After Kobyrn hit a jumper with 5:23 remaining the third quarter that cut Croatia's lead to 48-46, Poland didn't score again until Agnieszka Skobel split a pair of free-throws with 4:31 left in the contest.

Poland's first field goal in the fourth quarter didn't come until 2:42 from the death, when Elzbieta Mowlik hit a free-throw line jumper.

When it was over inside a Spodek Arena that had grown quiet, Croatia had out-rebounded Poland 47-36.

Kobryn's 17 points were a game high.

 

24.06.2011

Quotes Croatia vs. Poland

Poland Head Coach Dariusz Maciejewski:
"I am sorry we didn´t manage to win this game. Croatia had an excellent shooting efficiency in the first half. They controlled the game When you shoot 28% from the floor, you cannot expect to win a game in this tournament. Our defensive play was not bad but it was not enough."

Poland Guard Agnieszka Skobel:
"We had a glimmer of hope going into this game. We wanted to do our job and try to have a chance to progress to the next round. We didn´t play well against Croatia. They were better than us in many aspects of the game. They out-rebounded us and were superior shooting the ball. We are out of the next round and that leaves a bad taste in our mouths."

Croatia Head Coach Stipe Bralic:
"We played very fast in the first half but in the second half we were tired and slowed down the game. Poland is a strong team and they played good defense. I´m just happy that we won this game and that we have a chance to progress to the next round."

Croatia Center Iva Sliskovic:
"I think the key to our win was the fact that we out-rebounded Poland, something we had failed to do in our last three games. We started well and we defended much better than in our previous games and made no mistakes in the crucial stages of the game. "