Croatia stuns Russia 85-78 in men's basketball
12/8/2008 17:00
Zoran Planinic damped the last surge-up with a 3-pointer and a crucial
offensive rebounds to lead Croatia to a 85-78 win over Russia in today's
preliminary-round match of the men's basketball competitions at the Beijing
Olympics.
Marko Popovic made three free-throws to insure the victory for
Croatia (2-0), which got the berth in the Olympic finals after finishing 4-0 at
the qualifying tournament in July.
Popovic had the game-high 22 points and
Paninic adding 20. Stanko Barac contributed 12 points and seven
rebounds.
Croatia's sharp shooters buried five 3-pointers in the first half
in a quite even match to lead 42-36 on the break.
Andrey Kirilenko had an
all-round game, 18 points, six rebounds, three blocks and three assists, but not
enough to put the defending champions back on the track as they were beaten
again in the third quarter by 60-51.
Russia closed it by five points several
times in the fourth period before Planinic's 3-pointer made it 82-74 with 1.10
minutes to go. He grabbed the offensive rebounds on the following possession and
the time ran off.
Xinhua
|
