14.08.2010

Early Run Enough For F.Y.R. of Macedonia Against Bosnia

A rampant first quarter by FYR of Macedonia set them on the way to a 70-56 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina in Skopje as 7,000 fans celebrated their team maintaining the pressure on Great Britain at the top of EuroBasket 2011 Qualifying Round Group B.

The visiting team were caught seriously cold from the tip as the home team made a rapid-fire start and raced into an early double digit lead at 17-6 which then grew to 26-12 by the end of the first quarter.

It gave Bosnia and Herzegovina a real mountain to have to climb and the home team really began to heap more misery on the visitors at the start of the second period.

They opened up with a scintillating 15-4 burst and at 41-16, Bosnia & Herzegovina were looking like they had been blown out of the water early - even if they did finish the first half with eight unanswered points and continue their good work into the third quarter.

However, having been decidedly woeful for the first two quarters, they managed to reduce the gap to single digits after a much better third period when they capitalised on the malaise of the home team to get to within single digits.

When they then also scored the first five points of the last quarter to make it 53-48, the home team were suddenly in dire need of a kick start and eventually they picked themselves up again.

They finished the game with a 13-5 burst to end hopes of what would have been a potentially spectacular comeback by the visitors.

Bo McCalebb led the way for the hosts with 19 points while Henry Domercant finished with 13 points for the losing team.

 

15.08.2010

Quotes F.Y.R. of Macedonia vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina

F.Y.R. of Macedonia head coach Marin Dokuzovski:
"We expected these things in our preparation game plans. We knew that Bosnia have wery good starting five, but we have more players in the rotation and wanted to executed the game plan accordingly.We played extremely well in the first period when we built a solid lead (26:12). In the second period, I changed a couple players as I wanted to put more pressure on the Bosnia defense. In the second half we had a problem to attack the Bosniaan zone defense, and our opponent cut the lead. But, in the end, we had the additional energy to finish this very important game, finally we deserved this win because we led from the first to the last minute of the game."

F.Y.R of Macedonia player Predrag Samardziski:
"First of all, I have to send one big thank you to the thousands of our fans and the support they always give us, especialy when things do not go in the right way for us. We played aggresive in the defense in the first minutes of the game, and the final 14 points of diference is the real picture of the game. It was an important win for us midway towards the race to get to Lithuania. Now, my team and Great Britain are still in this run for the first place, and so I want to send a message to our supporters to come and cheer for us also in our game against Ukraine."

Bosnia and Herzegovina coach Sabit Hadzic:
"Congratulations to the home side for this win. Before the game we had problems with two injured players. We didn't find a way to stop the home team players especially in the first ten minutes when they built a big difference. We made some sort of comeback in the second half with our zone defence, and came as close as only three points behind our opponent. But, unfortunately, we don't have this final push to complete our comeback, and so we lost our final chance to stay alive in this qualification round."