SRB/ARG – Serbia wins Group A by winning over Argentina

KAYSERI (2010 FIBA World Championship) – A young but intense Serbian team won Group A of the FIBA World Championship by beating Argentina 84-82. The Serbians finished with a 4-1 record while Argentina has the same mark to finish second.

Serbia will now wait for the loser between Brazil and Croatia to play them on Saturday while Argentina plays the winners on Tuesday.

Argentina had a strong start led by point guard Pablo Prigioni who scored the first 5 points while Carlos Delfino added another 5 in a row to have a 10-4 lead. The 11-0 run by Argentina had them up 16-4. Then Luis Scola started to find the rim and went up 20-7.

After some changes in the lineup, Serbia came back with a 7-0 run led by Stefan Markovic and a 4 point play by Marko Keselj left the first quarter 22-20 in favor of Argentina.

In the second quarter both teams had seven lead changes as the Serbians were led by Dusko Savanovic who scored 9 points and Milos Teodosic added 7. In the final minute Serbia made a 6-2 run and finished the first half up 40-39. Scola kept Argentina close with 17 points, 11 of them in the second quarter.

Not only the starters contributed, but the bench players from Serbia kept the defensive intensity and offensive discipline. The Serbians finished the third quarter up 58-54.

Then in the final quarter Argentina stayed close thanks to a team effort offensively, led by Scola who had 10 points and also by Paolo Quinteros, Leo Gutierrez and Prigioni. Two free throws by Scola with 38.4 seconds left tied the game at 77, but a key three pointer by Dusko Savanovic gave the Serbians an 80-77 lead with 18.8 seconds. Then the Serbians secured the game from the free throw line and by not allowing three point attempts from Argentina.

Savanovic led the Serbians with 19 points off the bench while Nenad Kristic added 18 points, 12 of them in the final quarter.

In the loss, Luis Scola scored 32 points, breaking the 30 point mark for the fourth straight game.

You can see the complete highlights of the game as well as an interview with Dusko Savanovic at FIBATV.Com.

Quotes:

Sergio Hernandez (Head Coach, Argentina): It was a nice game, great players, great characters. Both teams are two of the best teams in the world. Many people thought that we would lose this game intentionally to get one more day off to rest in Istanbul but i don’t care what they thought. However, we showed the war in the court. I am proud of my team and Serbia who played fair.

Pablo Prigioni (Guard, Argentina): First of all I want to congratulate Serbia. It was a tough game. Both teams could win. We can take this defeat from the positive way that we can rest one day more. Also Oberto was sick and we hope him to be between us in Istanbul.

Dusan Ivkovic (Head Coach, Serbia): It was a tough game and also the best game we played in Kayseri. Both teams showed their characters today. We have been watching Argentina for 10 years trying to learn. Today, I think, we taught them something. We took control beginning from the second quarter and we won.

Dusko Savanovic (Forward, Serbia): We have been told that if we could beat Argentina we could beat anybody. We proved this today.

FIBA

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