Prepelic propels Slovenia past Cape Verde, reach Second Round unbeaten

OKINAWA (Japan) - Slovenia pulled away in the second half to beat Cape Verde, 92-77, to reach the Second Round of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 unbeaten, Wednesday night at the Okinawa Arena.

 

The European crew needed to overcome a tough challenge by their African counterparts - and Luka Doncic's rough night - on the way to locking up the top seed in Group F with a 3-0 card.

Doncic still ended up as their top-scorer with 19 points on a 5-of-17 clip from the field, but Klemen Prepelic took the spotlight with 18 points in the victory. Bine Prepelic and Aleksej Nikolic made their presences felt as well by adding 11 points apiece in the triumph.

Turning point: Slovenia were clinging on to a slim five-point lead late in the third until but Gregor Horvat led a 14-5 spree to finish the quarter in their favor, 69-55, never to look back.

TCL Player of the Game: Klemen shot 6-for-11 from the floor and also collected 4 rebounds, 7 assists, and 2 steals without a turnover to post a game-high 25 EFF rating.

 

Stats don't lie: Cape Verde actually shot better from the floor with 48-percent but turnovers hurt them a lot as they committed 29, which Slovenia turned into 21 points.

Bottomline: Slovenia will be joining fellow Group F side Georgia in Group K, where they will be going up against Germany (3-0) and Australia (2-1), the top two seeds of Group E. Coming out on Top of Group F is quite a privilege, as these results carry on to the Second Round.

They said: "My goal was to talk to the players in terms of getting into the game with the right mindset. This is the part I didn't completely succeed at. I think the focus was not on the level of the game, on the level of the World Championship. But in the second half I think we changed the mindset and played a much, much better game." - Aleksander Sekulic, Head Coach, Slovenia

"I think for us it was a great game. We tried our best against one of the best teams in the group that has a chance to win the World Cup. For us it was great to play against them. It was tough but we tried our best to win the game. It was not easy. We knew what we had in front of us. I think we gave everything. Like I said before the game, they have one of the best players in the world. He can control every minute on the court so it was tough for us but I think we did our job. We tried to do our best. But we knew what we had in front us." - Edy Tavares, Cape Verde

Press conference:

 

FIBA