Puerto Rico – Serbia 77:94 (15:27, 12:30, 31:18, 19:19)
Serbia secured a place in the second round of the World Cup. In the second game of the group B, Serbia defeated national team of Puerto Rico.
Head coach, Pesic, decided to keep the same starting five like against China. Stefan and Nikola Jovic, Ognjen Dobric, Nikola Milutinov and Bogdan Bogdanovic quickly got the double digit lead for Serbia. As the lead increased, Pesic was able to keep a high tempo of the game with 11 players, since Filip Petrusev did not play because of the injury. After 20 minutes of playtime the lead was 57:27 for Serbia.
Start of the third period went to Puerto Rico’s team. After 3 and a half minutes of playtime they cut the lead to +22, but after a timeout by Pesic, Bogdan Bogdanovic made a three pointer and stopped the run from Puerto Rico. Nevertheless, Puerto Rico players kept hitting deep shots and managed to cut the lead to +17 at the end of the third quarter.
A good third quarter gave a wind to the back for the national team of Puerto Rico, who managed to cu the lead to -10 with 5 minutes left in the game. On our next offense, Aleksa Avramovic grabs an offensive rebound and get two free throws after being fouled, he makes both free throws to stop the Puerto Rico’s run. Right after that, 4 consecutive points from Bogdan Bogdanovic gets the lead back up to +17 for Serbia. To secure the win for Serbia, Nikola Jovic made a dunk after an assist form Stefan Jovic.
Head coach, Svetislav Pesic:
“We started the game with enough intensity, they are a good team, as they have showed in the third quarter. There is no room for relaxation. This is the FIBA World Cup, not an all-star game. I can’t say anything new. The opponent played as much as we allowed them to. We are no longer thinking of Puerto Rico, we are already focused on South Sudan. We do not have time to dwell on it. We are trying to gain something from each game. It is not good if you win but don’t learn anything new. The game showed us what we need to do, and it’s great that this happened. In the end, we deservedly won. There were many good things. In the third quarter, we gave them the initiative, like in football; they scattered and showed a bit of pride. They know how to play basketball, and they displayed that.”
Nikola Jovic:
“First of all, I want to wish our head coach a happy birthday. In the first half, we did everything we were supposed to, just as we agreed. In the second half, we did everything the opposite way, they made a lot of three-pointers. We won, but we are not happy. This is what we want, Bogdan is our best player, he did not have the best shooting night, but we believed in him. Today, I was open, and I made some open shots. However, Milutinov and he led our offense, they were good in the pick-and-roll, and they pushed us forward.”