SRB - Serbia march on with victory in Maribor

MARIBOR (FIBA World Championship) - Serbia had a second straight outstanding weekend as they waltzed to the Adecco Cup title with an unbeaten run in Maribor.

Dusan Ivkovic's men beat hosts Slovenia 82-73 on Sunday following victories over Russia and New Zealand.

Serbia controlled the game against Slovenia, using a 14-3 run to seize a 32-23 lead before half-time.

Slovenia could not get close as Serbia continued to pull away.

Milan Macvan led the way with 15 points and six rebounds, while Nenad Krstic and Dusko Savanovic had 12 each.
Bostjan Nachbar poured in 17 points for Slovenia.

"We played well and deservedly won this game and the tournament," Ivkovic said. "We were much better than Slovenia on the night. We were solid on defense, even though we allowed them too many offensive rebounds. In the third quarter, we controlled the game well.

"At the end, there was a drop on concentration, but at no point was our victory compromised."

Serbia will now head to Athens to play Slovenia, Canada and Greece in the Acropolis Cup.

"In Athens we can expect three tough games," Ivkovic added. "Due to the large number of games in a short period we are rotating our squad, so (against Slovenia) we used a lot of players who did not see many minutes against New Zealand. What is most important at this point is that everybody is healthy."

Serbia had opened with a 69-63 victory over Russia behind 17 points fom Novica Velickovic, as well as 15 each for Milos Teodosic and Krstic.

Timofey Mozgov led Russia with 14 points while Sergey Monya added 13.

Serbia then followed that up with a 95-69 rout of New Zealand, who were coming off a tiring 104-103 double overtime victory over Slovenia.

Serbia used a 24-1 run to break New Zealand's back early in the game.

Novica Velickovic had 19 points and Miroslav Raduljica scored 17 to lead Serbia, while Phill Jones had 19 and Kirk Penney 17 for the Tall Blacks.

New Zealand's win over Slovenia was the most dramatic game of the weekend.

Penney scored 42 points as the Tall Blacks survived the loss of four players to foul trouble to pull off the victory.

Veteran Pero Cameron, still on his way back from victory, had 15 points in 16 minutes.

Slovenia had led by double figures but New Zealand never panicked and used some hot shooting to fire their way back into the game and they took an 11-point lead of their own in the fourth quarter.

But that is when the foul trouble began to hit and Slovenia came back.

Regulation finished tied at 86-86 after Penney missed a free throw that might have won it.

The first period of overtime failed to separate the teams as it ended 96-96 but New Zealand got off to a hot start in the second extra period thanks to a basket from Jones and a three-pointer from Casey Frank.

Nachbar led Slovenia with 29 points.

Slovenia had opened with an 81-73 win over Russia behind 23 points from Goran Dragic and 14 more from Uros Slokar.

Russia's only win came in their final game as they hit New Zealand 89-76, scoring the final 11 points of the game to secure the victory.

Andrey Vorontsevich had 19 points and Anton Ponkrashov 18 for Russia, while Penney scored 29 for New Zealand.

FIBA