GDANSK (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European Qualifiers) - The star-powered Croatia couldn't stop the rot in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European Qualifiers, falling to a 79-74 defeat against Poland in Group J on Monday night on the Baltic coast in Gdansk.

Bojan Bogdanovic and Dario Saric had big number next to their names in the boxscore, but coach Drazen Anzulovic's side slumped to a 3-5 mark in the standings after their second consecutive defeat in the September window despite the available talent.

The home crowd at the ERGO Arena celebrated a momentous win behind 21 points from Adam Waczynski and a 14-point and 9-rebound effort from big man Adam Hrycaniuk, as Poland improved to 4-4 in the standings.

Turning point: Down 75-74 with 15 seconds to play, Bojan Bogdanovic's hard intentional foul on A. J. Slaughter was deemed unsportsmanlike, giving Poland a pair of free-throws, possession and the chance to ice the game.

Game hero: There was no Maciej Lampe or Przemyslaw Karnowski for Poland, but there was a big man called Adam Hrycaniuk, who more than held his own. The 34-year-old veteran taught the two up-and-coming Croatian centers Ivica Zubac and Ante Zizic some lessons, going 6-of-9 from the field for 14 points and 9 rebounds.

Stats don't lie: In a game that saw 18 lead changes, neither of the teams led by more than 8 points. Poland's largest lead came at 75-67 with 3:52 left, while Croatia's biggest advantage never reached more than 5 points.

Bottom line: Having struggled without their key players in previous windows, Croatia did not make the most out of the presence of Bogdanovic, Saric, Zizic and Zubac and now find themselves in last place of the group, one win behind Poland and Hungary.

They said: "We wanted to prove even without our big men [Maciej Lampe and Przemyslaw Karnowski] even with our problems, we've got heart and we can fight to the end for the World Cup in China. We did this. I'm really proud of the team. We really stepped up, all of us. We did a great job defending their best players. They scored points, but I think we did a good job defending them." - Poland swingman Adam Waczynski

"I want to say how much I respect the efforts of our players during the entire window. This is a great reward for them for being great teammates and a great team, really working hard together. I think a lot of people at the beginning probably had a lot of questions about our team because of all the problems we had at the five. We appreciate (Polish club) Torun giving us the chance to have Krzysztof Sulima join our team and I just really have so much respect for the effort of our players and coaches and team to work together, support each other and help each other. I couldn't be more proud of how we played together today. We had big respect for Croatia coming in, obviously they have some big name players. Our players rose to the challenge individually and as a team and this was a big win for us. So I'm really proud. All the credit goes to the players, our team. Really, just so much respect for all of our guys and how they handled the situation." - Poland head coach Mike Taylor

"It's tough to talk after this kind of game. We did a little bit better job than the last game. We started very aggressive, but in the second half we didn't play smart enough to keep them from scoring easy lay-ups and a couple of threes in transition and we had some unnecessary double teams that didn't work. It's tough for us, tough for our national team to be in this situation right now but we have to fight." - Croatia guard Bojan Bogdanovic

"Congratulations to Poland. It was a tough game for us. We were under pressure to win this game and I think we opened the game and controlled it for 25-30 minutes. The game went to the end and we made some tactical mistakes, we lose the energy, we lose control in some moments. We give an eight point advantage in the end, we tried to come back in the game and got to one point down in the last minute. We missed open open shots, we had lay-ups and we had turnovers. When you do that, you cannot win." - Croatia head coach Drazen Anzulovic

FIBA