Slovenia overcomes Croatia despite poor shooting night from Luka Doncic / News - Basketnews.com

With Luka Doncic struggling to shoot, Vlatko Cancar and Goran Dragic came up big to lead Slovenia to a victory against Dario Saric and Croatia in the last preparation game before the 2022 EuroBasket.

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

Vlatko Cancar and Goran Dragic-led Slovenia overcame Dario Saric and Croatia in a close-fought battle with a final score of 94-88 (25-25, 16-21, 36-26, 17-16) in Celje.

With 42 seconds left Saric converted on a layup to reduce Slovenia's lead to 4 points (92-88), but that was last Croatia's points of the game.

With 1:19 left Klemen Prepelic hit a 3-pointer, but then Jaleen Smith answered back with his own 3-pointer with 1:05 left in the fourth quarter to put the deficit back to 6 points (92-86).

Jaleen Smith hit an important 3-pointer to keep Croatia's chances alive with 2:42 left in the final quarter to reduce Slovenia's lead to 6 points (87-81). A minute later Vlatko Cancar and Mario Hezonja traded baskets (89-83).

After a high-scoring third quarter, both teams started the last quarter slowly. Croatia had their first basket of the quarter with 6:21 left when Bojan Bogdanovic converted on a layup to reduce Slovenia's lead to 6 points (80-74).

Krunoslav Simon drained a 3-pointer with 6 seconds left in the third quarter to reduce Slovenia's advantage to 5 points (77-72) before the final ten minutes.

Slovenia had a better third quarter and regained the lead (56-55) after Vlatko Cancar's two free throws with 5:44 left in the quarter.

Croatia was leading most of the second quarter by a few points and ended the quarter with Ivica Zubac's hook shot to increase their lead to 5 points (41-46).

In the first quarter, teams kept changing leads and neither team was ahead after the first ten minutes (25-25).

Luka Doncic ended up with 10 points (1/2 2PT, 1/7 3PT, 5/8 FT), 6 assists, 5 rebounds, and 1 steal.

Slovenia was led by Vlatko Cancar, who finished the game with 21 points (3/3 2PT, 4/6 3PT, 3/4 FT), 9 rebounds, 3 assists, and 1 steal, for 29 PIR.

For Croatia, Dario Saric had 18 points (3/5 2PT, 4/7 3PT), 6 rebounds, and 1 assist for 18 PIR.

Slovenia:Vlatko Cancar 21 (9 REB), Goran Dragic 19, Mike Tobey 11 (6 REB), Luka Doncic 10 (6 REB, 5 AST),Klemen Prepelic 9,Zoran Dragic 7 (5 REB), Ziga Dimec 7 (5 REB);

Croatia: Dario Saric 18 (6 REB), Bojan Bogdanovic 15 (6 REB, 5 AST),Jaleen Smith 13 (5 AST), Ivica Zubac 13 (7 REB), Karlo Matkovic 10.

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