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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.

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.

Marko Car, Cedevita Zagreb (photo by kkcedevita.hr)

Even without the head coach for the next season at the moment Cedevita has done masterful move in the form of signing shooting guard Marko Car (6’3”/189cm/1985).

Car finished last Croatian A1 League season as the 2nd best statisticly ranked player overall, trailing only to F/C Luka Zoric.  Car led the league with 21.7 points per game and 5.0 assists per game, to go along with 1.9 steals per game.

Proven clutch shooter who spend last three seasons with Zadar is a definite improvement for Cedevita’s backcourt and the perfect complement to Croatian NT PG Dontaye Draper.

Here is his brief statement: “I feel really great with a new carrer turning point and new challenge right in front of me. The negotiations went quickly and I am very pleased to enter such a straight and ambitious environment such as Cedevita.”

With Car in town Cedevita will probably consider it’s options in regards to contracts with veteran guards Robert Troha and Vedran Princ who both had below average season.

This move also has strategic importance in the sense of taking over one of the key competitor’s players. Cedevita will now look forward to add more size in the frontcourt department.

According to gol.hr European club powerhouse Real Madrid has shown interest to possibly acquire Cedevita Zagreb lightning quick PG Dontaye Draper who will most likely become Croatian citizen in the upcoming months in order to play for Croatian NT.

Cedevita’s Team President Mladen Veber stated that “Draper acquisition is very unlikely since he still has two more contract years with Cedevita”, but was not able to deny if there were any contacts made between Real Madrid and Draper’s agent.

LEADER OF THE WOLFPACK – BOJAN BOGDANOVIC
(photo by CroHoops.com)

With nothing to lose Cibona approached game 2 of the heated semifinal series vs Cedevita with incredible energy and motivation to prove their current worth.

By closely following instructions of their coach Josip Vrankovic, who oftenly switched defenses and made the right adjustments, Cibona was able to reach an unbelievable 61:31 halftime advantage.

Second half was something different.  With PG Dontaye Draper and SF Damjan Rudez both limited with 4 personals, Cedevita’s 3rd quarter comeback attempt was led by exposive SG Hrvoje Kovacevic who scored 22 points in 20 minutes only to help Cedevita win 2nd half by 46:57.

Cibona’s young unit (Vragovic-Bogdanovic- Zubcic-Radosevic) struggled in the start of 4th quarter but was able to put an stylish end to the one of the most convincing Cibona’s Ws of the season.

Cibona’s court leader G/F Bojan Boganovic was impressive with 29 points in 33 minutes of play, with many of those coming after strong drives to the left. His strong performance was supplemented by Zubcic’s 16pts+5reb, Rozic’s 19pts+5stl+4ast and Vrbanc’s 15pts+4reb.

Decisive game 3 of the series is scheduled for Wednesday (20.15 CET).

VRBANC (CIBONA) vs DRAPER (CEDEVITA)

Cedevita Zagreb managed to exploit it’s homecourt advantage and gain 1:0 lead over local rival Cibona Zagreb in the semifinal clash of Croatian Championship.

Led by virtually unstoppable PG Dontaye Draper (20 points, 7 received fouls), who was able to find all possible cracks in Cibona defense,  Cedevita was relatively convincing in the first half of action.

However, on the wings of the phenomenal 21-year old F Tomislav Zubcic (17pts+9reb+3stl+3blk) who was inserted to play nominal point guard position (standing 7’0”!), Cibona managed to rally back and narrow the halftime margin to only 2 points (39:41).

In the second half Cedevita managed to fully insert it’s typical offensive style with Draper distributing the ball to the shooting trio of Wright-Bazdaric-Rudez which was able to convert open long distance shots.

But in the closing minutes Cibona took advantage of Cedevita’s missed free throws (Petrovic, Wright) and was again able to rally back with it’s 22-year old captain Bojan Bogdanovic (17 points, 5-14 from the floor) missing the lay-up and then the desperation three-point shot just before the final buzzard.

Despite Cibona’s PF Leon Radosevic pale performance (6 points on 2-9 shooting, 2 rebounds) general impression is that Cibona should be able to match Cedevita well and will likely continue to exploit it’s obvious rebounding advantage.

Game 2 of the this heated series between bitter local rivals is scheduled for Sunday (20.30 CET).

COMPLETE CROATIAN CHAMPIONSHIP 2011 PLAYOFF SCHEDULE AND SCOREBOARD

W/W COMBINATION FOR CEDEVITA – DRAPER & PETROVIC

Only a week after Cedevita achieved a historic feat by qualifying to the ULEB Eurocup Final Four some of the key individual ingridients of this latest success story for Croatian basketball have been honored.

On Tuesday, head coach Aleksandar “Aco” Petrovic, has been named ULEB Eurocup coach of the year.  Two days later Cedevita’s PG Dontaye Draper has been named ULEB Eurocup most valuable player.

Next weekend, in the semifinal round, Cedevita will face UNICS Kazan for the third time this season.