After suffering their initial defeat at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023, Serbia came back with a dominant performance, defeating the Dominican Republic 112-79 to secure a spot in the Quarter-Finals.
Bogdan Bogdanovic led the charge for Serbia, scoring 20 points, a stark contrast to his previous struggles against Italy. This victory marked Serbia’s fourth consecutive entry into the top eight at the World Cup.
Additionally, Serbia extended their unbeaten record against the Dominican Republic to 2-0, with their previous win occurring during the 2020 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Belgrade.
Serbia wasted no time in asserting their dominance, embarking on a 16-2 run in the first quarter, giving them a commanding 26-9 lead.
They further solidified their advantage with nine consecutive points early in the second quarter, pushing the lead to 20 points. Following this, the Dominican Republic failed to mount a comeback.
Bogdan Bogdanovic had struggled in Serbia’s previous game against Italy, making just 1-of-13 three-pointers. However, he rebounded spectacularly in this match and was recognized as the TCL Player of the Game.
He contributed 20 points, connecting on all three of his three-point attempts, in addition to providing 5 assists, 3 steals, and 1 rebound.
“We are a good team,” Serbia center Nikola Milutinov said. “We had a bad say 13 minutes in the last game (against Italy) that cost us the victory unfortunately. But most importantly we came back. We didn’t give up. We showed our quality today and won the game.
“The last game we didn’t shoot very well, today we did. We just have to keep improving and getting better. We know that we have quality but we have to stay humble and go game by game.”
Watch the game highlights between the Dominican Republic and Serbia in the First Round of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023:
