By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Adam Waczynski scored 21 points and P0land bounced back from a blowout loss to Italy by beating Croatia 79 – 74 and keeping their World Cup dreams alive.
While this win lifts the Polish national team to the third spot (tied with Hungary) of Group J, Croatia drops to last with a 3-4 record and are in serious danger of being left out of the three top seeds that lead to the World Cup.
The Croatian national team finished this “Window” of the World Cup Qualifiers with two losses in two games despite the presence of such players as Bojan Bogdanovic, Dario Saric, Ivica Zubac, Ante Zizic or Krunoslav Simon.
Against Poland, Bogdanovic had 22 points and five assists, Dario Saric 17 points, seven rebounds, and four assists and Ante Zizic 13 points and eight rebounds. None of their teammates scored more than six points though, and also their team crumbled down defensively in the fourth period where it was outplayed 25- 16.
Adam Hrycaniuk added 14 points and nine rebounds for Poland. Mateusz Ponitka had 12 points, four assists, four rebounds and AJ Slaughter also scored 12.