12.09.2011

Slovenia Book Quarter-Final Spot

Turning Point: With Finland having cut the deficit to six points heading into the final quarter, Erazem Lorbek stepped up for Slovenia with six quick-fire points to ease the nerves and give his team the cushion they needed.

Game Hero: Uros Slokar finished with 13 points, 8 rebounds and no turnovers.

Stats Don't Lie: Slovenia did a great job of keeping Finland off the offensive glass and gave up only 6 second chance points.

Slovenia ended their recent losing streak to punch their quarter-final ticket after seeing off Finland in a do-or-die Group F encounter.

While it was far from flawless and involved surviving a fourth quarter drought and late scare, Slovenia responded to the recent criticism and pressure by claiming a 67-60 success.

As for Finland, their remarkable journey ended in slightly disappointing fashion as they missed a golden opportunity to make it to the last eight.

They were always on the back foot from the early stages with Coach Henrik Dettmann calling time-out, his team 22-15 behind.

Once Slovenia began making perimeter shots, it became even more difficult as they built up a commanding 14-point advantage at 42-28 by the half-time break.

If the Finns were to have any chance of dragging themselves back into the game, they needed to be more aggressive defensively and put Slovenia under some pressure.

They did a better job during the third quarter, giving up only 12 points in ten minutes. That gave them hope of completing a memorable fight back having cut the gap to just six points at 54-48, thanks to some great play in the closing seconds by Tuukka Kotti.

The start of the last quarter was always going to be vital and it was Erazem Lorbek who was the key figure as he delivered with three successive baskets in a 6-2 run for Slovenia.

This took their lead back out to double digits and while they only managed a further seven points in the game, Finland were also misfiring and couldn't capitalise.

Slovenia now head to Kaunas where they will face defending champions Spain in the Quarter-Finals.

12.09.2011

Quotes Slovenia vs. Finland

Slovenia Center Uros Slokar:
"It was very important for us to win this game. We didn't want to go home so soon. We worked hard to get this win but it was worth it. We didn't play so well in the last games and we felt like we're not enjoying playing basketball. Before the game we just told ourselves to relax and think how we can enjoy the game again. Go on the floor and try to be more relaxed. I think that's something we managed to do. Finland played good but we kept them on a low score and that's the key for our wins. Spain is favorite against any team in this tournament, but our goals are different than theirs. We will try to win and give 100% to win. If that would be enough it's great, and if not we're still going to be happy with the result because we gave 100%."

Slovenia Forward Goran Jagodnik:
"We knew that we need to start playing defense again to win. That's the only way we can win games and that's what we did today. We still missed some open shots and made some small mistakes, but we got the win and hopefully we'll get better from here, because it was a very important game for us. Now we will play against Spain in the Quarter-Finals. They are the favorites and one of the best teams here, as we see by their results. We're coming to the game in hope to win it. We're not going to give up in advance. That's for sure. It doesn't matter if we're underdogs or not. The main thing is that we'll play hard and good defense, and that's the only way we could have a chance to win."

Finland Forward Hanno Möttölä:
"Slovenia played good today and gave us a really hard time. We had some shots we missed but we were competitive and in a position to win. We allowed Slovenia to take off in the first half and paid for that later on. We might need to wait a few weeks to see the influence of our performance here in EuroBasket. First of all we proved we can be competitive and play in this level. If a few more kids will go to play basketball now then this is a great help for Finnish basketball. There are 11 more guys here who played great and gave everything they got for this team. I feel the proudest captain in this championship."

Finland Head Coach Henrik Dettmann:
"The thing that hurt us the most was probably our poor rebounding. We were too small again under the basket. but again we came back and showed fight. I am very proud of my players."

Slovenia Head Coach Bozidar Maljkovic:
"We played with a lot of discipline and very strongly for 32 or 33 minutes with good defence. If there weren't some mistakes during the final minutes of the game then I think we would have won more easily."