SRB/AUS – Serbia holds on to beat Australia

KAYSERI (2010 FIBA World Championship) – Serbia finally had their roster complete and held on to beat Australia 94-79 in day four of Group A in the FIBA World Championship.

The addition of center Nenad Kristic, who came from the bench, gave more options offensively to coach Dusan Ivkovic who used him right in the first quarter.

In the first quarter both teams fought hard on both sides of the court, the Serbians made a quick 7-0 run to be up 14-7 and the first quarter ended 16-12. Milos Teodosic and Novica Velickovic scored 14 of the 16 points by Serbia while Nenad Kristic made 2 late in the quarter.

Then in the second quarter the Serbians relied on their hot shooting from long distance, as they made 5-10, to stay with the lead and finish up 43-37. The offense by Marko Keselj and Nenad Kristic was also key in their attack and combined for 14 in the quarter alone. Adam Gibson led Australia with 8 points.

Serbia controlled the game in the third quarter led by their reserves who did a good job of taking the ball inside to open the shooters who were efficient. Also on defense they forced some costly turnovers that were capitalized on the other side.

In the final ten minutes Australia came back led by Matt Nielsen and Brad Newley to be down 81-78 after a three pointer by Teodosic and two free throws put the game away from the Serbians who are 3-1.

Teodosic led the Serbians with 19 points while Velickovic followed with 18. Shooter Stefan Markovic left the game in the final quarter with a right hand injury after he fouled Patrick Mills.

Quotes:

Dusan Ivkovic (Head Coach, Serbia): It was a tough game. This was the second hardest game after the one against Germany. It was an interesting game for us because we had the chance to try 35 3-points-shoot while only 31 2-point-shot. This means that we took some risk and won the game.

Brett Brown (Head Coach, Australia): “First of all congratulations to coach and Serbia. I am disappointed with losing this game. There are 2 perspectives about these games like playing with Argentina and Serbia. We fought in the field and played well but then they put their class and experience so at the end they won.

Matthew Nielsen (Forward, Australia): Serbia is a strong team. We made silly mistakes and lost. The situation in group is very complicated and it is not clear what will happen. After the games tonight it will be clearer.

FIBA

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