SLO – Brave Slovenia fight on without Baric

PUERTO MONTT (2011 FIBA U19 World Championship for Women) – Time is ticking down in the first half of Slovenia’s clash with Brazil, and star guard Nika Baric drives hard to the basket to reduce a margin that had swelled in the final minutes of the term.

Her shot misses, and she crashes to the floor with a cry of pain clutching her ankle. Perhaps Slovenia’s chances of progressing to the Eight Finals came crashing down too. “It will be very hard for us to beat Spain without Nika,” coach Damir Grgic said following their 67-50 loss to Brazil on Friday. “I don’t think she will play again this tournament.”

“The girls have tried their best. They tried today against Brazil, but they were very good and athletic. They tried so hard against Taipei, but they played so fast. Our girls don’t have experience against these different styles of play.”

And while Grgic is an animated figure on the sidelines, he has nothing but respect for his players. “Of course I am proud of them, they have been brave and given their best,” he said of his team that just two years ago was in Division B in Europe.

“We were at the opening ceremony and we looked around and saw the USA, Australia, China and all these great basketball countries, and it was like ‘are we really here?’. We have a young team, most of them will go to the U18 championships in Europe after this, and I think they will have learned very much from this tournament.”

Against Brazil, the Slovenians lost no friends with their performance, trailing by just two at quarter time behind Baric’s mercurial passing, and trailing by just nine points at the long break after a late burst by the South Americans.

While the flamboyant Brazilians would blow the game open in the third quarter, the plucky Europeans surged again in the final term even without their on-court leader, reducing the margin to single figures before running out of fuel.

For Grgic though, this is just a stepping stone for Slovenian women’s basketball. “We worked so hard over four years, and this has been some reward for the team. Hopefully, we will be in the women’s world championship some day soon.”

Paulo Kennedy

FIBA