ImageIn front of 10.000 fans, hosts Poland suffered their second loss to Serbia. Poland now stands fifth in Group F with a 1/2 record, while Serbia is on third place with 2/1.

Serbia started solidly and took the lead early on, Michal Ignerski however was keeping the Poles in the game as he had 13 first-half points. Serbia went into halftime being up by 7 (43-36).

 

Marcian Gortat opened the second half with two quick baskets to cut Serbia's lead to just three points. It was then when Serbia had a 13-0 run to their maximum lead of 16 midway the third quarter including six points by big man Nenad Krstic.

 

Poland managed to cut that lead to 9 points at the end of the third quarter having a 7-0 run. Poland's run continued in the final quarter with the hosts coming within a basket's range (64-62) with 5:24 to go. It would be a close game from then on, but the Serbians kept a cool head and finally won the game 72-77

 

POLAND 72-77 SERBIA

 

Poland: Skibniewski, Roszyk 4, Chylinski 2, Szubarga 2, Witka, Szewczyk 7, Wojcik, Ignerski 13, Logan 10, Gortat 16, Lampe 2, Koszarek 16

Serbia: Popovic, Tepic 11, Teodosic 13, Paunic 2, Bjelica 5, Markovic 2, Tripkovic 12, Raduljica, Krstic 18, Perovic 4, Velickovic 10, Macvan

 

Game quotes:

Dusan Ivkovic (Serbia Coach): "It was a very big test for my young team, playing against Poland and their very good crowd. We controlled the game from the start and our defense today was on a really high level. We played very good defense on both Logan and Lampe. When we were plus 16 my team didn't give the young polish players enough respect and they made a comeback, led by a very good Lukasz Koszarek. We also had two injured players and I have to make sure, that they will be ready for next games."

Uros Tripkovic (Serbia): "It's a very import ant win for us, winning here in front of such a big crowd shows the character of our team. Now we have to forget this win and prepare for next game against Turkey."

Nenad Krstic, (Serbia): "We have a very hard group, so we are happy that today we have made the first step to qualify. It was a really tough step. We felt an enormous pressure from this hot atmosphere in the arena. Today's result is a great achievement for us."

Muli Katzurin (Poland Coach): "I want to congratulate coach Ivkovic and his players. In a game like this we should take a lead from the start and we should play very good defense. We didn't do it and we had to chase them. We had our chances to win this game, but we made poor decisions at critical moments. Serbia deserved this win and we have to look for next games."

Łukasz Koszarek, (Poland): "We should have played different today. At the beginning we played too slowly. Then Serbia took advantage of several points and we had to chase the result. It was the moment when we should have played calmly, but it seemed like we didn't stand the pressure. Our main problem is defense – in the second half we defended better, but it was not enough for the opponent. I have to admit, that today the Serbian team was well prepared for the game. We could win this game, but we didn't manage it. There are two really hard games in front of us. We will keep fighting."