EuroBasket - World Cup-bound Croatia reach Semis

LJUBLJANA (EuroBasket/FIBA Basketball World Cup) - Croatia joined the list of countries qualified for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup on Thursday by fending off Ukraine 84-72 to reach the Semi-Finals of EuroBasket 2013.

Krunoslav Simon collected 23 points while Bojan Bogdanovic scored 14 points and Damir Markota had 12 as the Croatians became team number 16 to book its place for Spain 2014. They also advanced to the Semi-Finals in Europe for the first time since taking back-to-back bronzes in 1993 and 1995.

"For a long time we didn't make a Semi-Final - 18 years. That was our first goal coming here because this generation is a very talented generation and deserves to be in all competitions," said Croatia coach Jasmin Repesa.

"This story is so beautiful, it would be really bad to stop here. We want to continue. We want to fight."

Ukraine, who were making their debut in the knockout stages of a continental championship, got 19 points, six rebounds and six assists from Eugene 'Pooh' Jeter and 15 points from Viacheslav Kravtsov in the loss.

"The second quarter was our demise. We had way too many turnovers. We never got ourselves organized in the second quarter and our defense became non-existent," said Ukraine coach Mike Fratello.

"Hopefully we'll learn from this game. We have two more games that we have to play."

The EuroBasket 2015 hosts Ukraine still have two more chances to reach next summer's FIBA World Cup.

They will play the losers of Thursday's other Quarter-Final between Lithuania and Italy in 5-8 Classification Round action on Friday.

The winner of that game will book a spot at Spain 2014. The loser of that contest would have a final chance on Saturday in the Seventh-Place Game against Serbia.

Ukraine used three-pointers from Sergii Gladyr and Jeter to open a 12-5 lead. Repesa called a timeout and his team responded with a 9-0 run to lead 14-12. The rest of the first quarter was a back-and-forth affair with the scored knotted at 22-22 with seven lead changes and five ties.

Gladyr helped Ukraine pull ahead 28-25 early in the second quarter when Dontaye Draper scored all six of his points in a 19-1 run over a six-minute stretch as Croatia built a 44-29 lead. The cushion grew to 17 points at 49-32 before Croatia went into the break leading 51-35.

The Balkan powers continued their push in the third quarter, growing their lead to 19 points, 61-42, before Kyryl Natyazhko drained two triples in helping Ukraine get back to within nine points 66-57. Croatia still were up 70-61 after three quarters.

A Dario Saric long ball made it 75-61 before two Dmytro Zabirchenko foul shots trimmed the margin to 75-65. Ukraine went five minutes without scoring but allowed just one basket and cut the gap to 78-68 on a Jeter jumper with 1:44 minutes remaining.

Oleksandr Lypovvy could not handle a pass from Gladyr with 1:16 left and Simon and Bogdanovic combined to make six of eight free-throws in the final 61 seconds to secure the win.

For full and in-depth coverage of EuroBasket 2013, go to the official website http://www.eurobasket2013.org.

FIBA