Croats deny England with late surge in Brum
England's men produced one of their best performances of recent years but it wasn't quite good enough to hold off the powerful Croats at Birmingham's NEC. The hosts held a 12 point first half lead but let the opportunity for a famous victory slip by in the final stretch to lose 77-81 in the European Championship Group A tie.
Veljko Mrsic and Gordan Giricek each notched a game-high 20 points for the unbeaten group leaders (4-0) who rallied to take their first lead with 13 minutes left and benefited from a missed pair of free throws from Roger Huggins with two minutes left which would have tied the game.
Instead, Huggins, who ended on a game-best 18 points for England, came up short to leave the visitors 77-89 ahead and Nikola Prkacin made the contest safe with a pair from the foul line off a Huggins foul, the Belgian based star fouling out with an additional nine rebounds.
"Unfortunately at the end we could not make our shots but we showed we can compete with the best," said captain Steve Bucknall whose MVP performance included 16 points but 0/3 from the three point distance. "We have to pick ourselves up now and go against Hungary whom we match up against better."
The result was a frustration for England who played some excellent defensive basketball in out-rebounding their guests 31-26 but the Croatian's extra seven conversions from free throw opportunities proved crucial.
Other Results
Switzerland 76-70 Hungary ; Slovakia 61-79 Latvia
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