Bojan Bogdanovic after early exit in WC Qualifiers: 'We lost because of our stupidity' / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

Croatia suffered yet another fiasco on the international basketball stage after a nail-biting defeat against Finland (79-81) in the FIBA World Cup European Qualifiers.

Croatia / Schedule

Slovenia Croatia97-69 Croatia Finland79-81

Despite having an 8-point cushion with 2 minutes to go in the do-or-die game, Croats stopped on the offensive end and gave away the victory to their opponents. Lauri Markkanen got the job done for the Finns, sinking a three-point dagger.

Croats finished last in Group C with a record of 1 win and 5 losses and will miss next year's FIBA World Cup.

In the last couple of minutes, Croatia missed as many as seven out of eight shots, leading them to a collapse. According to the team star Bojan Bogdanovic, Croatia cannot blame the circumstances, just themselves.

"The Finns didn't beat us, we beat ourselves. We have collapsed in the same way over again. We have no right to complain about the conditions. We lost because of our stupidity.

Markkanen caused us problems and Salin hit a couple of threes. With the good energy of Prkacin and Gnjidic, we turned the game around, but unfortunately, we didn't win," said Bogdanovic, via index.hr.

He added that Lovro Gnjidic is not to blame for the missed four free throws at the end of the match.

"The support was excellent, but I repeat time and time again, we lost in the same way. Lovro has nothing to do with this defeat. I am the one to blame. I got the ball, but unfortunately, I missed.

We've never fallen lower, it's hard to say something smart after this. EuroBasket is coming, but we have to see who will play at all," concluded the Utah Jazz forward.

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