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31 August, 2017
17 September
08/08/2016
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Slovenia off to flying start under Kokoskov

CELJE (FIBA EuroBasket 2017 Qualifiers) – The tenure of coach Igor Kokoskov at the helm of Slovenia commenced in triumphant fashion as the 'Junaki' won the four-nation Pokal Adecco tournament they organised in Celje, ahead of Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Portugal. All four teams are in the early stage of preparations for the FIBA EuroBasket 2017 Qualifiers, which tip off 31 August.

Slovenia breezed past Belgium 89-59 in the tournament final after out-rebounding the visitors 40-29 and dishing out a collective 30 assists. Zoran Dragic led the winners with 16 points and four assists, Edo Muric added 15 points and Jaka Blazic finished with 13. The hosts' big star meanwhile, Goran Dragic, scored only five points but collected a game-high nine assists. For Belgium, Jean Salumu had 10 points and Maxime De Zeeuw collected eight points and four rebounds.

The hosts had prevailed 67-51 over Portugal on Day 1, behind 11 points from Klemen Prepelic and 10 from Blazic, while Claudio Fonseca finished with 10 points and eight boards in a losing effort. In the other game on opening day Jonathan Tabu came up with 18 points, six rebounds and five assists to propel Belgium to a 73-68 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina, who were led by Elmedin Kikanovic's 20 points. The Balkan side's 17-year-old rising star, Dzanan Musa, scored 16 points and added four assists.

"These initial games were for us to get an idea of where we stand at this point of preparations," said Kokoskov. "In a lot of things there is plenty of room for improvement, we are more satisfied with some things than we are with others. Physically, we have not yet reached a sufficiently high level but this has nothing to do with the quality of training, it's because we need more games and better reactions to reach competition level.

"Our defence was better [against Belgium] than in the game [against Portugal], we held the opponents below 20 points in every quarter. The guys understand that if we want to play fast, we have to get better on defence." Following the conclusion of the tournament, Kokoskov decided to cut 19-year-old guard Zan Mark Sisko and Slovenia's preliminary squad is now down to 15 players.

Belgium in the meantime have announced that Quentin Serron, Lionel Bosco and Amaury Gorgemans will join training camp on Tuesday while youngsters Elias Lasisi and Ismael Bako terminate their involvement with the senior national team this summer. The Belgian Lions however are not yet sure when star forward Axel Hervelle, who is nursing an injury, will be able to join his team-mates.

Bosnia and Herzegovina meanwhile, who defeated Portugal 83-78 in the game for third place, are also expecting important re-enforcements in the coming days as captain Mirza Teletovic will enter action. Teletovic travelled with the team to Slovenia but did not take part in either game. Fellow NBA star Jusuf Nurkic on the other hand suited up against the Portuguese, playing for the national team for the first time in two years, and paved the way to victory for his team with a game-high 23 points and seven rebounds.

FIBA