By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
A superb comeback from a 14-point deficit and a highlight reel worthy game-winner block by Dario Saric on Pau Gasol gave Croatia 72 – 70 victory over Spain.
Bojan Bogdanovic paced the winners with 23 points and quite the clutch shooting down the stretch. For Spain, Pau Gasol was… traditionally sublime with 26 points and 9 rebounds.
The Spanish national team was sitting on a seemingly safe double-digit lead for the majority of the game, being ahead 50 – 36 near the end of the third quarter. But that was the moment when they began a series of ugly decision-making, which Croatia absolutely took advantage of.
With team captain Roko Leni Ukic leading the charge, Aco Petrovic’s players fired up their engines for a 9 – 0 run to make it 50 – 45. It was “game on”.
Croatia kept chewing more and more pieces of their deficit in a moment when most players of the “Rojas” seemed lost on court, until they gained the lead after Luka Babic threw the slam in transition for the 57 – 56.
The game turned into a rodeo with both teams exchanging buckets and everything was pointing towards quite the thrilling finale. It was then when, Nikola Mirotic drenched a big downtown shot for the 71 – 70 with 12 seconds to go and then Saric was fouled by the Spaniards.
He made only 1/2 but delivered the play of the game on the other end, by blocking Gasol’s hook shot attempt to give Croatia its first Olympic victory since 2008.
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