Serbia strengthened their position as top contenders for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 title by overpowering Puerto Rico 94-77.
With this victory, Serbia secured their second win in Group B, with all 11 Serbian players who participated contributing points.
This victory extended Serbia’s perfect record of 5 wins against Puerto Rico since 2016, including a dominant 90-47 triumph in the 2019 World Cup’s Second Round.
Serbia quickly outpaced Puerto Rico, propelled by 20-year-old Nikola Jovic, who scored 17 points, 11 of them in the first quarter, and added 4 assists and 3 rebounds.
“I want to wish our coach a happy birthday,” Jovic said. “I hope he had a special birthday, especially because we won. In the first half we did exactly what the coaching staff wanted. We did a great job defending them.
“They scored only 27 points and we were great on offense. The second half was not great for us. We did exactly the opposite. They made a lot of threes. The result is great because we won but I would not say that we are that happy.”
Check out Name Name’s TCL Player Of The Game highlights during Puerto Rico and Serbia game at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023:
