Bosnia and Herzegovina crushed the favorites of the EuroBasket, Slovenia, with a score of 97-93. The former, featuring Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic, defeated Slovenia and the NBA star Luka Doncic. Meanwhile, despite being the tournament favorites, Doncic and Slovenia failed to halt the surge and faced a huge upset. The underdogs proved the pundits wrong, as they anticipated it to be a cakewalk for Slovenia.
The Intense Final Quarter
Slovenia claimed a six-point lead in the first quarter of the game, finishing 32-26. They maintained their lead in the next two quarters, but Bosnia and Herzegovina came out blazing in the final quarter of the matchup, finishing 25-20. Despite falling behind for the majority of the contest, the underdogs thrashed the defending EuroBasket champions by four points.
Nurkic Struggled
Nurkic struggled, shooting only 3-13 from the field and 1-4 from beyond the arc on offense. However, he scored 12 points, grabbed nine rebounds, and made four assists in 30 minutes. The Bosnian Beast also made two crucial free throws in the game’s final four minutes while shooting a perfect 5-5 from the line.
Although Nurkic struggled to give a stellar performance, his teammates John Roberson and Dzanan Musa played remarkably well. The former scored 23 points on 7-13 shooting, while the latter finished with 22 points, five assists, and five rebounds.
Slovenia’s Winning Streak got Halted
Bosnia and Herzegovina halted Slovenia’s 11-game EuroBasket winning streak. Meanwhile, they also gave Doncic his first-ever EuroBasket defeat. By his extraordinary standards, the three-time NBA All-Star made a dismal run. He scored 16 points, made eight assists, and grabbed eight rebounds. He made 8–18 shots from the field, making 0–8 of them from beyond the arc. Meanwhile, his teammate Goran Dragic, the Chicago Bulls’ veteran point guard, scored 20 points and made six assists.
The outcome comes three days after Bosnia and Herzegovina defeated Hungary 95-85 for its first EuroBasket victory since 2015. They are now sitting second in Pool B behind Germany after going 2-1 in tournament play. Meanwhile, with a loss, Slovenia (2-1) drops to fourth. Meanwhile, Nurkic and his teammates celebrated the victory, singing with their supporters.
Comments