Scintillating Shved leads Russia past Croatia and into the quarters

ISTANBUL (EuroBasket 2017) - A scintillating performance by Alexsei Shved spearheaded Russia to a convincing 101-78 victory over Croatia and a Quarter-Final date with Greece.

Shved had 27 points and 12 assists as Russia dominated the second-half after a tight opening 20 minutes. Both teams were hot early, in an energetic start with Russia leading by just 4 points at the long break.

However, inspired by Shved, Russia put the foot down in the second-half to storm into the final eight. 

Turning point: Little separated the teams in the first-half but Russia went into the long break with momentum when Timofey Mozgov tipped the ball in from an out-of-bounds pass as time expired. It seemed to spur Russia, who utterly dominated the game in the second-half. 

Stats-don't-lie: Russia moved the ball crisply around in an attempt to find the open shooter. In contrast, Croatia looked out of sync offensively, particularly as they faded in the second-half. Russia won the assist count 23-13. 

Game hero: Shved has carried Russia in this tournament and continued his spectacular performance with a stellar all-round game. He scored at will but also set up his teammates to totally control the game. 

They said: "It was a good game for us, not only by result, but also the way we executed what we wanted. Okay, mistakes here and there - that's normal. But we were patient, we kept doing what we wanted and it gave us this result." - Russia coach Sergey Bazarevich said at the press conference.

Highlights

FIBA