Two minutes after the start of the 4th quarter Bojan Bogdanovic scored 2 free throws and advanced his team 51:49 in Croatia – Georgia game. After that, there was something that the Georgian basketball fans will remember for a long time. Igor Kokoskov’s team won 6-minute period 18:0 (!) and defeated Europe’s one of the best teams on its own field – 71:58. More than 6 thousand Croat fans started booing their players. About one hundred Georgian fans were in ecstasy.
We can say the Croats did not have motivation in the last game (we can say the same about the Georgians). However, post-game comments proved that the Croats played only for victory. Krunoslav Simon, one of the best basketball players of the host team, highlighted the fact that they were playing home and did not have a right to disappoint their fans.
We must highlight an incredible transformation of the Georgian national team. After losing 3 games at EuroBasket, it was really hard to guess that the Georgian basketball players would play at such high level. The first signs of optimism showed up in the second half against Greece, the team reached good level against Macedonia and the team which played Croatia deserves playoff for sure.
Like the previous games, the Georgian national team played much better in the second half.
The last quarter was a decisive one. Duda Sanadze was incomparable. He scored 9 points in a row. Overall, Sanadze earned 12 points in 14:30 minutes.
Duda was one of those 6 (!) Georgian basketball players, who scored 10 and more points.
It was not surprising that Manuchar Markoishvili was among these 6 players with Zaza Pachulia (12), Viktor Sanikidze (12), Tornike Shengelia (11) and Jacob Pullen (10).
We are delighted that the naturalized American earned points. Shengelia added 6 rebounds and 5 assists to 11 points.
We must highlight Viktor Sanikidze’s good game. He played 34:31 minutes and was very productive. Viktor missed only one shot and besides 12 points, he had significant statistics: 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 blocks.
Georgia beat Croatia 5:1 in steals, 9:3 in blocks and 13:7 in turnovers.
The Georgian team scored 20 from 34 2-point (59%) and 7 from 19 3-point (37%). Croatia used 17 from 39 2-point (44%) and 4 from 23 3-point (17%). Bogdanovic had a very unlucky day. He scored only one from 10 shots.
Georgia – Croatia 71:58 (14:13, 11:15, 22:16, 24:14)
Dato Manjavidze, specially for worldsport.ge from Zagreb
