Croatian Basketball Team Beats Cameroon in Athens

Jasmin Repesa’s team won the first match of the qualification tournament for the Beijing Olympic Games, by beating Cameroon 93-79.

The Croatian national basketball team opened the qualification tournament for the Olympic Games with a victory. 

The Croats did not open the match very well and did not manage to find a way to crush a, “basketbally” speaking, anonymous national team.

Only in the middle of the second quarter, Croatia managed to wake up and to score an advantage which they maintained till the end of the game, despite falls and mistakes.

Repesa brought six players from the Croatian league to this tournament, mainly pivots and wing pivots, but he did not manage to find the right couple to oppose to the brilliant Cameroonians. The result of that are 16 rebounds less than the adversaries in attack. If we add 15 lost bolls, it is clear why the point difference at the and was not higher, despite the wonderful two-point shot average, and a brilliant 50% average in the three points.

Such lack of concentration in defence rebounds can be bearable against a weaker team, but against Puertorico it will not be enough to balance it up with a brilliant shot average.

Marko Tomas was surely the best player in the Croatian ranks. Tomas scored 22 points in 23 minutes on the parquet. He was well served by Popovic, with 17 points, and by the trio Planinic, Banic and Prkacin, each with 12 points.

Repesa now has to ask himself whether leaving Bagaric out was a smart decision.