Croatia Bounce Back To Beat Latvia

Turning Point: Croatia finished the third quarter with a 12-4 run and that both broke the game open and knocked the stuffing out of Latvia.

Game Heroes: Iva Ciglar sparked the first half revival for Croatia who started slowly and she finished with 17 points and 9 assists while Iva Sliskovic was a superb 6 of 7 from the field for her 14 points.

Stats Don't Lie: Croatia had more intensity defensively and finished with 11 steals compared to 5 for Latvia.

A resilient Croatia bounced straight back from their quarter-final mauling by Czech Republic to keep their hopes of reaching the Olympic Games alive.

Despite a sluggish start, they overpowered a lacklustre and jaded looking Latvia whose London 2012 dreams are now over.

Ironically it was the Latvians who started with more energy in a high tempo and highly entertaining first half before fading badly during the latter stages.

With eight lead changes summarising an exciting first couple of quarters, the game had looked as if it would go down to the wire.

Tied up at 46-46 during the third quarter, a triple by Lisa Karcic set the ball rolling for Croatia as they began to take control.

Latvia meanwhile ran out of gas and had no answer to the ball movement and inside play of Croatia with Iva Sliskovic unstoppable under the hoop.

The Latvian cause wasn't helped when a technical foul on Coach Dikeoulakos helped Croatia to extend their lead further and they never looked back.

Once they had stretched the margin to twenty points at 76-56 it was all over - despite a late rally by Latvia which cut the margin to single digits but it was far too little too late.

Quotes Croatia vs. Latvia

Croatia Head Coach Stipe Bralic:
"I am very happy because we won against a very strong team. They have very good players and an excellent coach. We had a very tough game against the Czech Republic yesterday and we had little time to prepare.
"We did good, especially passing and three-point shooting, and I am very pleased with my team´s performance. We have one more game to go and it is a very important one for our team and our country."

Croatia Guard Sandra Mandir:
"I thought everyone played well today. Everyone contributed to the win, which is exactly what we needed to beat a team like Latvia. We were very efficient from three-point shooting and we kept our concentration until the end, I think that was the key."

Latvia Head Coach George Dikeoulakos:
"Congratulations to Croatia. They played very good and very smart. They were always one step in front of us. But it´s not only enough to play smart, you also have to make the baskets and they did. They had cold blood on their shots. Whatever we tried to do it was meaningless at the end. I said before the game to my players that the team that was thinking more about yesterday´s defeat would be the team that would lose this game. Croatia deserved this win."

Latvia Guard Liene Priede:
"A lot of our players were down and out after yesterday´s defeat. We tried to pull ourselves together. But we were in foul trouble, with Gunta (Basko) with three fouls early on. We tried to do our best but Croatia were stronger and shot very well.'"