Serbia shocked big favorite Spain

Nenad Krstic (Photo: FIBAeurope.com)

08-09-2009 00:47

Serbia outplayed Spain for the first three quarters and did enough to hold on in the final frame to take a 66-57 win in EuroBasket Group C.

Nenad Krstic led a balanced offense with 17 points as Serbia took the lead from the very start and never relinquished it, going up by as many as 19 points, 56-37, at the end of the third quarter.

Turning point: After Felipe Reyes and Juan Carlos Navarro combined for five quick points to get Spain to within five, 24-19, early in the second quarter, Serbia then accounted for 14 of the final 18 points of the first half. That proved to be enough as the closest Spain got the rest of the way was seven, on Ricky Rubio's free-throws with just over 40 seconds left to play.
Hero: Actually heroes...starters Novica Velickovic and Milenko Tepic were the main instigators as Serbia took a 38-23 lead at the break and substitute Milan Macvan hit some two clutch shots in the third quarter to deal a real blow to Spains moral, pretty much making the fourth quarter a mere formality.

Stats: One. Thats the number of free-throws Pau Gasol made out of his seven attempts. Well actually it was eight attempts as there was a lane violation on one of them so he got to take one of them again and missed it.