EUROBASKET 2011

Turning Point: Straight after the half-time break and having led by three, Bosnia and Herzegovina went scoreless for almost six minutes as F.Y.R. of Macedonia took full advantage with a 14-0 run. It proved decisive since Bosnia and Herzegovina tried and failed to recover.

Game Heroes: Pero Antic continues to stand up and be counted for F.Y.R. of Macedonia and racked up another double-double with 15 points and 14 rebounds. Meanwhile Vojdan Stojanovski got the job done defensively for his team with five steals.

Stats Don't Lie: The inside presence of F.Y.R. of Macedonia who harvested 40 points in the paint compared to only 32 for their opponent.

Bosnia and Herzegovina failed in their bid to reach Round 2 with defeat against F.Y.R. of Macedonia to send jubilant Finland to Vilnius.

A third quarter drought proved fatal for Coach Sabit Hadzic'splayers who simply had to win to progress.

The 75-63 win by F.Y.R. of Macedonia certainly went down well with the Finns whose Cinderella story will continue for at least another week as an incredible sequence of results catapulted them into the next phase of the tournament.

Everything had looked relatively comfortable for Bosnia and Herzegovina up until halftime.

Led by an excellent Sasa Vasiljevic who had nine points and six assists in the first half alone, they found themselves 38-35 ahead.

However they went into meltdown at the start of the third period as F.Y.R. of Macedonia took control.

Trailing 53-47 heading into the final 10 minutes, Bosnia and Herzegovina needed to launch a salvage operation to drag themselves back into contention.

It was tough going with the F.Y.R. of Macedonia defence locking down Henry Domercant on the perimeter and containing Mirza Teletovic.

As hard as they tried, they simply couldn't recover and get over the hump as their dreams faded while that of the Finns came alive once more.