DUBROVNIK (2015 FIBA U19 World Championship) - Reinforced with many of their top players finally on board, Croatia beat Greece and Australia in a warm-up tournament for the 2015 FIBA U19 World Championship while Serbia picked up two victories over Argentina.

Many of Croatia's top players joined the team after finishing up the domestic league season, and the U19 Worlds title contender showed their strength in a six-team tournament in Dubrovnik featuring four teams competing in Greece starting on 27 June.

After losing three friendly games in Spain, Croatia eased past Australia 99-59 with Dragan Bender scoring 20 points, Ivan Vranes hitting for 14 and Ivica Zubac adding 11 points. Australia, who were out-rebounded 42-23, got 13 points from Kyle Clark and 10 from Jack White while Dejan Vasiljevic and Tom Wilson combined for 12 points on just 2-of-15 shooting from the field.

Croatia's other win came against U19 Worlds hosts Greece as the Croats made all six of their free-throws in the final 34 seconds for an 84-80 victory. Nik Slavica led the way in the winning effort with 20 points while Ante Zizic had 19 points, eight rebounds and two blocks and Goran Filipovic chipped in 13 points.

The victory could end up being costly for Croatia as guard Lovro Mazalin injured a finger on his left hand in the second quarter. While the finger is not broken, it may cost him the U19 Worlds with team doctors to decide on his status in the coming days.

Greece showed an ability to come back against Croatia - in a game that could theoretically be a preview of the U19 Final - as the Greeks fought back from a 10-point late second quarter deficit and took the lead before eventually losing. 

Vasilis Charalampopoulos collected 22 points, five rebounds and four assists in the loss while Dimitris Stamatis added 21 points and Michalis Lountzis scored 10 points. 

The loss came after Greece had beaten Australia 80-67 a day earlier. Georgios Papagiannis had 18 points and eight rebounds, Stamatis scored 16 points, Vasilis Toliopoulos collected 15 points and six assists and Kostas Mitoglou chipped in 12 points. 

Australia, who shot only 39 percent and were out-rebounded 35-26, got 15 points from Jack McVeigh and 10 each from Vasilijevic, White and Tanner Krebs. 

The fourth U19 team at the Dubrovnik event was Turkey, who picked up two tight victories despite playing without three of their top players - Egeman Guven, Furkan Korkmaz and Okben Ulubay, who were all with their TBL club teams in the finals of the Turkish playoffs.

Dogus Ozdemiroglu scored 12 points and Berk Ugurlu had 11 as Turkey beat the Croatian U20 team 65-60. Turkey’s other victory was a 59-52 win over the Montenegro U20 team with Ogulcan Baykan leading the way with 11 points and both Yigit Arslan and Ayberk Olmaz scored 10 points.

The placement games were being played Saturday in Dubrovnik.

Two other teams in action ahead of the U19 Worlds were Serbia and Argentina, who played two games in Serbia.

Stefan Simic scored 13 points while Ilja Djokovic had nine points and five assists as Serbia beat Argentina 79-54, holding the South Americans to just 30 percent shooting. Lucio Delfino had 11 points for Argentina.

The second match-up between the teams saw Serbia charge back from an 18-point halftime deficit to win 58-56. Vasilije Vucetic scored 12 points while Simic collected nine points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals as Serbia out-scored Argentina 23-7 in the fourth quarter.

Argentina, who hit just 33 percent of their shots, lost despite 16 points from Maximo Fjellerup and 10 points by Rodrigo Gerhardt.

FIBA