CroHoops

PG Dontaye Draper, Croatia

Cedevita Zagreb PG Dontaye Draper made his debut for Croatia and has become the first American basketball player EVER to play for Croatian senior NT.

Draper immediately helped Croatia breeze to a couple of easy victories over Bulgaria (72:59, 77:54) in friendly encounters held in Osijek couple of days ago.

Considering the fact that G Roko Ukic has suffered an injury Draper could see extended minutes for Croatia in the upcoming European Championship.

July 14th – 24th U20 European Championships (Bilbao, Spain)
Croatia to face: France, Latvia, Sweden

July 21st – 31st U18 European Championships (Poland)
Croatia to face: Greece, Slovenia, Poland

July 28th – August 7th U16 European Championships (Czech Rep.)
Croatia to face: Turkey, Italy, Bulgaria

August 4th – 14th U18 European Championships Women (Hungary)
Croatia to face: Switzerland, Portugal, Hungary

August 11th – 21st U16 European Championships Women (Italy)
Croatia to face: Greece, Czech Republic, Russia

August 31st – September 18th EuroBasket Men (Lithuania)
Croatia to face: Greece, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Qualifier 1

2011 Eurobasket for Women took place in Poland, from June 18th until July 3rd.

ROUND I/GROUP D

Saturday, June 18th
Croatia vs France   86:40

QUICK RECAP: France opened the game with 21:3 run and held Croatia to 14 of 56 (26%) shooting from the field. France also outrebounded Croatia by 54:32. Croatia displayed tendency to be to very much dependent on it’s three-point shoot. Croatia Head Coach Stipe Bralic’s postgame statement: “France are very strong in position four and five, while they also have two very good point guards. We had no chance against them. We played very slow. We have to play faster on offense and better defense if we are to do something in this tournament.” (source: EuroBasketWomen2011.com)

Sunday, June 19th
Croatia vs Greece   65:63

QUICK RECAP: Croatia won it’s first game of the competition with the go ahead jumper scored by team captain Sandra Mandir 2.6 seconds before the end of the regulation. Mandir contributed a game-high 19 points to go along with 5 assists and 5 boards. Greece star SG Evanthia Maltsi was held to only 8 points on 3-15 shooting. Here is Sandra Mandir postgame statement (source: EuroBasketWomen2011.com): “As one of the most experienced players in the team, I am used to taking the last shot. Sometimes it goes in and other times it does not. Fortunately, today it did. I was not surprised because we built a lot of confidence throughout the game and I knew I could make the shot. This is a great win for us, especially after yesterday´s defeat to France. We played a lot better and we deserved this win.” (source: EuroBasketWomen2011.com)

Monday, June 20th
Croatia vs Latvia   61:67

QUICK RECAP: Croatia led by as much as 53:38 in 25th minute of the game. However, Latvia installed excellent zone-press and zone defense and limited Croatia to only 8 points in the remaining time. SF Jelena Ivezic led Croatia with 14 points and 6 rebounds. Here is Croatia’s Head Coach Stipe Bralic statement: “We played a good game for the first 30 minutes. Losing Ana Lelas, our best player, to injury, put us in big trouble. In the second half we played very bad defense. Latvia were very strong in the paint in the final quarter and we could not stop them.” (source: EuroBasketWomen2011.com)

ROUND II

Wednesday, June 22nd 2011
Croatia vs Montenegro   60:81

QUICK RECAP: Led by Iva Peranovic’s 25 points and 15 boards Montenegro managed to outrebound struggling Croatian side by 54:34. However Croatia managed to cut the deficit to 53-45 with less than three minutes to go in the third quarter before Montenegro went on a decisive 20-3 run (73-48). G Sandra Mandir led Croatia (1-3) wih 14 points and 7 assists.

Friday, June 24th 2011
Croatia vs Poland   64:56

QUICK RECAP: Croatia managed to outrebound the host of the Tournament by 47:36. Croatia scored 12 unanswered points to go 60-48 ahead with less than four minutes remaining. SG Sandra Mandir again led Croatia with 13 points, 9 boards and 4 assists.

Sunday, June 26th 2011
Spain vs Croatia   71:75

QUICK RECAP: In front of 1000 spectators Croatia was able to change it’s destiny and make an unbelievable upset by edging 2009 EC bronze medalist Spain 71:75 and thus qualify to quarter-final round. Having trailed 61-54, Croatia scored 14 unanswered points to take a 68-61 lead with one minute remaining in the game. Croatian captain SG Sandra Mandir had a game-high 24 points while shooting 9-13 from the floor. Here’s her postgame statement: “Spain were favourites to win this game but we showed today that if we play hard, we are capable of beating anyone. We did our best and we got the win we needed to go through to the Quarter Finals. I hope we can give another good performance in our next game.” (source: EuroBasketWomen2011.com)

QUARTER-FINAL ROUND – Wednesday, June 29th

Czech Republic vs Croatia   79:63

QUICK RECAP:  In the last six minutes of the third quarter and in the first two minutes of the fourth quarter Czech Republic scored 24 unanswered points to take 69-40 lead and determine the final outcome. SG Sandra Mandir again paced Croatia with 27 points, 5 boards and 4 assist. Croatia committed as much as 14 turnovers compared to Czech Republic 7 turnovers. Here is Croatian NT Head Coach Stipe Bralic’s statement: “We struggled against Viteckova and Vesela. They dominated us for 40 minutes. The Czech team was very difficult.” (source: EuroBasketWomen2011.com)

5th-8th Place Qualification Game – Thursday, June 30th

Croatia vs Latvia    84:75

5th Place Game – Saturday, July 2nd 2011

Croatia vs Montenegro   73:59

- Croatia qualified to additional qualifying cycle for 2012 London Olympics

All the games were broadcasted LIVE on Croatian National Television.

Croatian U19 NT – official page

Croatian U19 NT – team preview by EuropeanProspects.com

Croatian NT Roster

Boris Barac – CroHoops.com Profile

Mislav Brzoja

Filip Bundovic

Mario Hezonja – CroHoops.com Profile

Martin Junakovic

Toni Katic – CroHoops.com Profile

Stipe Krstanovic

Marino Kucan

Marko Ramljak

Dino Repesa

Dario Saric – CroHoops.com Profile

Stefan Zadravec

Head Coach: Drazen Brajkovic

Croatian NT Schedule & Results
(Group C, Liepaja, Latvia)

30th June vs Lithuania 88:75

1st July vs Canada 88:84

2nd July vs South Korea 71:75

4th July vs Egypt 83:81

5th July vs Serbia 68:73

6th July vs USA 87:85

8th July  – quarter-final game
vs Argentina 76:81

9th July – 5th-8th place classification game
vs Australia 63-90

10th July – 5th-8th place classification game
vs Poland 70-82

Croatian NT Team Leaders (per game stats)

points: Boris Barac 18.7

rebounds: Dario Saric 10.1

assists: Toni Katic 4.5

steals: Boris Barac 1.2

blocks: Dario Saric 1.0

Croatian NT additional note:

- 5 out of 12 players on Croatian NT roster were younger then 18

Led by steady play of PG Toni Katic (21 points, 8-10 from the floor, 4 assists), steady scoring punch of F Boris Barac (18 points, 3-6 for three, 7 rebounds) and usual overall presence of F Dario Saric (17 points, 8 rebounds, 4 steals) Croatian NT was today able to win USA by 87:85.

Team USA outrebounded Croatia by 40:30 and was paced by it’s leading scorer Jeremy Lamb who scored as much as 25 points in 33 minutes of action.

Point guard Joe Jackson added 14 points to go along with 4 assists for USA, but has commited as much as 6 turnovers in the game.

SF Damjan Rudez (while playing for Cedevita)

According to team’s web site Cibona Zagreb has signed sharpshooting SF Damjan Rudez (6’8”, 1986).

Native of Zagreb spent the last couple of seasons with Cedevita Zagreb and was rumored to sign with Zagreb CO just a week ago.

Along with signees Kovacevic & Suton, Rudez will certainly provide additional (scoring) spark in the team’s upcoming Euroleague qualifications.

Goran Suton vs Tyler Hansbrough

According to official team web site Cibona Zagreb has signed one-year deal with experienced and hard working PF Goran Suton (6’10”/1985).

Suton, who starred for Michigan State Spartans and led them to 2009 NCAA Final Four appearance spent the last couple of seasons playing in Russia and Italy.

Suton’s international experience could be a nice supplement to Cibona’s prospects and should improve Cibona’s chances to reach Euroleague through qualifications.

G Jelena Ivezic, Croatia (photo by FIBA Europe)

Before 2011 EuroBasket for Women many questioned Croatian head coach Stipe Bralic’s modified version of Paul Westhead’s “high octane run & gun” system which has been successfully instaled in Phoenix Marcury (WNBA).

Now, when this system has helped Croatia to drastically improve during the course of the Tournament and to win as many as 3 out of it’s 4 last games in 2011 EuroBasket for Women, many of his critics have silenced.

On Saturday, Croatian NT took the 5th place in 2011 Women EuroBasket and has qualified for the additional FIBA qualification cycle for London Olympics.

Fueled by it’s pressing defense and paced by it’s guard duet Jelena Ivezic (21 points, 8 rebounds, 3 steals) and Iva Ciglar (19 points, 5 assists) Croatia managed to win the tournament rematch with Montenegro by 73:59.

The most astonishing statistic of the game was that Croatian NT bench led by Marta Cakic’s 12 points managed to outscore complete Montenegrian bench by as much as 34:6!

American-born SF Lisa Karcic saw extended playing time as defensive catalyst in the last two games which were vital to Croatian NT. She has responded with 6.0 points, 7.5 boards and 2.0 steals per game in those contests.

Croatian NT head coach Stipe Bralic’s postgame statement: “This is the biggest achievement of my career” (source: www.fibaeurope.com).