@FIBAWC: Estonia surprised Serbia, “winner takes it all” against Israel in Belgrade

The Serbian basketball squad didn’t use their chance in Tallinn to qualify for the World Cup in China because they lost against Estonia with a score of 71 – 70. The Match against Israel on Sunday from 16:00 h. in Belgrade will be crucial for Aleksandar Đorđević’s squad.

In Tallinn, the Serbian team was leading during three quarters and at the first minute of the last quarter the score was 49 – 57 (+8) for the guests. But then, the home team woke up and got closer. Đorđević’s squad helped the hosts with a lousy defense and postponed the decision about the last participant of the World Cup 2019 from the Group L (Greece and Germany already qualified).

The Estonian squad scored four (from a total of 9) three pointers in the last quarter. That was the punishment for the guests because they didn’t used the given chance to lead with a bigger difference. With a good defense in the first 30 minutes Serbia was able to have a double-digit lead and to finish the run for the spot for China, but that never happened and Estonia celebrated in front of their own crowd.

As it was mentioned before, the home team scored 9 three pointers (from 25 attempts), while the guests were successful only 6 times from 19 attempts. Also, Serbia had 16 turnovers and only 4 steals, while the home team only 9 turnovers and 10 steals. Those little details helped Estonia to celebrate at home.

Janari Joesaar was the best player for the winners (the MVP of the game). He had 8 points, 9 rebounds and 2 steals for an index rating of 16. His teammates Kristjan Kitsing and Kristian Kullamae scored the most points in the match. Both players finished the game with 18 points each one of them and both had and index rating of 15. Those two Estonian players were the only double-digit scorers in the squad, while all these three players were the only Estonians with a double-digit index rating.

In the Serbian squad the best was Stevan Jelovac with 19 points and 8 rebounds (index rating of 23), while two players finished the match with 16 points each one of them, Dragan Milosavljević (index rating of 14) and Miloš Teodosić (10 assists, index rating of 13). Even though Teodosić was the only player with a double-double, his missed shots in the last quarter annulled everything he did before.

This was a hard loss for the national team of Serbia, but the squad is still in the run for the spot and the final decision will be known after the match against Israel on Sunday in the Aleksandar Nikolić Sports Hall (also known as Pionir).

Although a win from the Unitary Parliamentary Constitutional Republic of Georgia Basketball National Team in Tbilisi (its capital and largest city) against the Republic of Estonia Basketball National Team will help to the Republic of Serbia Basketball National Team to qualify for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 in China in case of a win of the State of Israel (Unitary Parliamentary Republic) Basketball National Team in Belgrade as you can check through this link.