MKD - MKD beat Bosnia in final to win EuroBasket warm-up

NEU ULM (EuroBasket/FIBA Basketball World Cup) - The Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia (MKD) were the surprise outfit at EuroBasket 2011, and the Balkan side sprung another surprise at the Supercup in Germany by winning the warm-up tournament ahead of EuroBasket 2013 with three victories over Greece, Germany and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Gjorgji Chekovski nailed six three-pointers in scoring 33 points while Vlado Ilievski tallied 20 points on five triples in MKD's 93-84 win over Bosnia in the final in Neu Ulm.

"This win is good for us because it's our last game of preparation. Now we can go into EuroBasket with some confidence," said MKD star Bo McCalebb, who collected eight points, five rebounds and five assists against Bosnia, who led 70-60 after three quarters.

"We were down 10 at the start of the fourth, but we kept fighting hard and got some stops and that’s how we got the win."

MKD, who were playing the final game without injured big man Pero Antic, also got 12 points from Vojdan Stojanovski.

"We improved over all three games and we're happy with our results here," said McCalebb, who scored 25 points in MKD's 77-75 win over Greece on Friday and 14 points in their 81-67 defeat of tournament hosts Germany on Saturday.

"We won tonight, but it doesn't matter for us. We still have a lot of work to do until the beginning of the EuroBasket," said MKD coach Ales Pipan, who took over the team which grabbed a surprising fourth place in Lithuania two years ago.

McCalebb knows none of the teams in Slovenia from Sept 4-22 will be caught off guard by MKD.

"This tournament is gonna be tough - just like it was last year. We just got hot at the right time. I don't think anybody is going to take us lightly," he warned.

MKD were drawn into Group B with Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lithuania and Latvia.

The Bosnians were paced in Neu Ulm by star shooter Mirza Teletovic, who scored 21 points against MKD while Nihad Dedovic had 18 points in the loss. Teletovic was marvelous in Bosnia's 90-84 victory over Greece, hitting seven three-pointers - most of them highly-contested - in scoring 27 points while grabbing 11 rebounds. Dedovic had 19 points and Zach Wright added 18 points and four assists.

Teletovic torched Germany with 26 points and nine rebounds while Dedovic had 18 points in a 73-62 win on the opening day of the warm-up tournament.

"You never know with my team. Our problem is we are the kind of team that either plays a perfect game or a poor game," said Bosnia coach Aco Petrovic.

"There is no middle for my team. And that is very dangerous for a European championship."

"It's better to keep the same high level. But we are learning. We are not favorites. We have a tough group. We know that. But we are going to be ready."

Greece finished third in the tournament with a 1-2 record after beating Germany 78-62 thanks to 19 points from Vasilis Spanoulis.

"We are still working on finding our rhythm and spacing on defense. That is the key," said Greece's new coach Andrea Trinchieri.

"We know how to score points on offense, but we need to get defensive stops.

Greece still have a warm-up tournament in Athens before heading to Koper for Group D with games against Turkey, Italy, Sweden, Finland and Russia.

Hosts Germany meanwhile lost all three games in front of the home crowd with Tibor Pleiss leading in scoring against MKD (16 points) and Greece (18 points) while hitting for 10 points against Bosnia. Robin Benzing, who missed eight weeks of the summer through injury, led Germany against Bosnia with 13 points.

Germany, who will take on Sweden on Friday in their final warm-up, go up against France, Belgium, Ukraine, Great Britain and Israel in Group A in Ljubljana.

FIBA