The Croatian national basketball team achieved its second victory as part of the pre-qualifications for the EuroBasket 2025. In Opatija, Damir Mulaomerović ‘s team defeated Switzerland with a score of 84-53 (50-26) .
Croatia has shown authority and seriousness from the beginning. A 6-0 start grew to 22-10 by the end of the first quarter. Bojan Bogdanović (7), Dario Šarić (5) and Karlo Matković (4) got off to a particularly inspired start .
In the second quarter, Croatia increased the speed, and the advantage constantly grew. After a great assist by Dominik Mavra for Matković, Croatia led 27-13. Bogdanović’s three-pointer for 32-17 followed, and the first escape to a 20-point advantage via Matković (37-17), and by half-time the advantage grew to +24 (50-26).
By then, Matković had already shown a great performance with 17 points and 8 rebounds. Bogdanović scored 10 points, and Dario Šarić scored 9 with 6 rebounds and two assists. Krunoslav Simon, although without a point, collected four assists and two steals by halftime.
The second half was an ideal opportunity for coach Mulaomerović to deploy his forces before going to EuroBasket, which starts on September 1, and give an opportunity to players who participated less in the previous part of the preparations and pre-qualifications for Eurobasket 2025. This did not affect the result. Matković was replaced under the basket by Ivica Zubac and with his dunk, Croatia went ahead for the first time by more than 30 points (59-28). The Croatian side entered the final quarter with +29 (70-41) and the game ended peacefully.
Karlo Matković finished the match with 17 points, 12 rebounds and 5 blocks, Dario Šarić scored 13 (7 rebounds), Ivica Zubac (7 rebounds) and Bojan Bogdanović 12 each, Toni Perković and Jaleen Smith 7 each, and Roko Prkačin 6 points.
The first game at EuroBasket in Milan will be played on Friday, September 2nd, 2022 at 17:00 against Greece.
Result by Quarters: 22-10, 28-16, 20-15, 14-12
Find the Boxscore here
