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C Stanko Barac, Croatia (photo by ezadar.hr)

CROATIAN NT ROSTER

PG Dontaye Draper
PG Marko Popovic
PG Rok Stipcevic
SG Kruno Simon
G/F Marko Tomas
G/F Bojan Bogdanovic
SF Damjan Rudez
F Damir Markota
PF Luka Zoric
PF Luksa Andric
PF/C Ante Tomic
C Stanko Barac

EUROBASKET  SCHEDULE

Wednesday, August 31st 
vs Finland   84:79

Thursday, September 1st 
vs Macedonia    76:78

Saturday, September 3rd  
vs Montenegro   87:81

Sunday, September 4th
vs Bosnia & Herzegovina    80:92

Monday, September 5th
vs Greece   69:74

FRIENDLY GAMES RESULTS – SUMMER 2011

26.7. Croatia vs Bulgaria 72:59
27.7. Croatia vs Bulgaria 77:54

Addeco Cup (Ljubljana, Slovenia)
6.8. Croatia vs Montenegro   85:71
8.8. Slovenia vs Croatia   60:65
9.8. Croatia vs Serbia 71:80

London Invitational Tournament
16.8. Serbia vs Croatia   83:71
17.8. Great Britain vs Croatia  70:75
18.8. Australia vs Croatia   78:66
20.8. Croatia vs France   60:83
21.8. China – Croatia   53:83

Last updated on 29-08-2011. Anything missing? E-mail us at   crohoops@gmail.com.

Contributed 12 pts in 18 minutes vs China - Damir Markota (photo by CroHoops.com)

On the last day of 2011 London Invitational Tournament Croatia had a relatively easy task of handling down 83:53 loss to not quite well organized China.

Nets 2011 draftee Bojan Bogdanovic again led Croatia in scoring with 16 points, mainly coming on easy transition dunks and mid-range jumpers. C Ante Tomic was very close to the triple double category with 9 points, 8 boards and 6 assists.

Croatian NT will return to Zagreb before it’s path to 2011 EuroBaske. With F Damjan Rudez returning from the flu and ready to go head coach Josip Vrankovic is about to determine the final lists of passengers for Lithuania.

PF Luksa Andric, Croatia (photo by CroHoops.com)

Croatia was able to win Great Britain by the final score of 75:70 (12:18, 23:5, 28:24, 12:23) for it’s second victory in London Invitational Tournament.

Host team was simply no match for Croatia which shot he ball 9-17 from the longe range distance during first three quarters of the friendly encounter.

Croatia had 63:47 lead just 10 minutes before the final whistle but Great Britain somehow managed to narrow the gap to only +3 points for Croatia (69:66).

Croatia then decided to exploit it’s inside advantage and managed to score couple of crucial baskets through C Ante Tomic and PF Luksa Andric.

SG Kruno Simon again paced Croatia with 16 points while F Joel Freeland had 22 points for Great Britain which played without star forward Luol Deng.

Day 2 Results:

China vs Serbia   53:87

France vs Australia   71:67

SG Kruno Simon, Croatia (photo by FIBA.com)

Croatian NT was able to successfully open it’s London International Basketball Invitational Tournament campaign with the initial 83:71 (20:19, 24:17, 18:16, 21:19) win over rival Serbia.

Croatia took the lead just before the end of the first quarter (17:16), led at the half by 44:36 and reached 16-point surplus midway the last quarter before managing to stay on the top.

Shooting guard Kruno Simon again displayed his excellent shooting stroke while leading the Croatia with 17 points (6-8 from the floor). C Ante Tomic added 13 points and 9 rebounds.

With both teams’ primary focus on Defense, Croatia managed to shot 20-25 (80%) from the line, while Serbia finished with just 12-24 (50%) makes from the line.

Complete Day 1 Results:

Australia vs China   71:43

Great Britain vs France   60:82

 Bogdanovic makes another step forward in his career

Croatian NT completed relatively successful performance on Adecco Cup with 80:71 loss to Serbia in the final game of the competition in Ljubljana, Slovenia. In the battle of 2011 EuroBasket contenders both coaches instructed their players to “search and execute easy basket opportunities early on.”

Croatia led by as much as 67:57 just 7 minutes before the final whistle before allowing an almost unbelivable 23:4 run by Serbia after the time-out called by Serbian NT head coach Dusan Ivkovic.

Croatian C Ante Tomic pounded the glass at both end of the court and ended up the contest with 13 points and 14 boards, but made his fifth foul on Tournament MVP Nenad Krstic with five minutes left.

PG Dontaye Draper again had a very good game and did a much better job of controlling Croatian NT play and creating opportunities under pressure than his counterparts Popovic (went into the foul-trouble early on) and Stipcevic.

Nets’ 2011 draftee and Fenerbahce star G/F Bojan Bogdanovic again led Croatia in scoring with 17 points. Bogdanovic completed the Tournament as the best scorer having scored 53 points in 3 games which is an 17.7 ppg average.

Croatian swingman has been named to the All Tournament Team along with G Goran Dragic (Slovenia), G Milos Teodosic (Serbia), F Mirza Teletovic (Bosnia) and C Nenad Krstic (Serbia).

Adriatic League and Croatian League MVP PF Luka Zoric was (again) relatively unimpressive – on numerous occasions he was to hesitant to take the shot.

General impression is that Croatian NT played much better offense when the ball was in the “flow” rather than in “post up” positions.  Defense seems to be in place with the room for improvement in the “help defense” area.

Coach Vrankovic has quality alternations for each of the positions. His main focus in the upcoming weeks should be to boost the quality of the frontcourt play which should really be one of the key factors for Croatia in the upcoming EuroBasket.

Holding his own in the paint vs Slovenia – C Ante Tomic

After the hard fought defensive battle Croatia was able to win Slovenian NT in front of it’s home crowd in Ljubljana Stozice Arena by 60:65 (15:16, 15:16, 21:16, 14:12).

Despite being only 4-17 from three-point land and having as much as 19 turnovers, Croatia controlled defensive boards throughout the complete course of the game and was able to win the second half battle for the boards by 15:7. C Ante Tomic led the team with 9 boards overall and came up with couple of huge points to seal the victory in the clutch time.

PG Dontaye Draper was again impressive especially during the opening sequence – not only he controlled the ball, creating chances for his teammates but he also created havoc on the defensive end, stealing the ball in the early phase of Slovenian offense. He is an DEFINITE UPGRADE on the point guard position for Croatia and he is taking the play of the team on the completely new level.

Screenshot: Croatian National Television/HRT

Olimpija Ljubljana PF Damir Markota again played with poise, but he obviously lacks determination and was overmatched by Slovenian NT PFs on numerous occasions.

Nets’ 2011 draftee Bojan Bogdanovic again had a solid game. While holding his own on defense he was able to be the second leading scorer of the team with 11 points. Zagreb CO SG Kruno Simon had 15 points. Coach Joke Vrankovic decided not to use SF Damjan Rudez and SG Marko Car in this one.

Overall Croatia managed to stay within the game and showed ability to control the game in the most critical moments while rotating as much as 11 players, 10 of which scored. This victory over highly respected Bozidar Maljkovic is a confidence booster for still relatively unexperienced Croatian NT coach Joke Vrankovic. It seems like Croatian NT is finally heading into the right direction…

On Tuesday, Croatia will face Serbia (21.00 CET) in the final game of the Tournament with LIVE broadcast on Croatian National Television.