HAMBURG (FIBA U17 World Championship) – Before the quarter-finals squared off, Poland tried to avoid Serbia. In the end, it was as best an opponent possible – at least so it seemed.

The european heavyweights respected each other, that much was obvious in the first quarter. Either team tried to avoid unforced errors, not wanting the respetive opponent to play gain the upper hand (23-17, 10min).

This dramatically changed in the second stanza, when Poland decided to shift into higher gears. Even the smallest gap would be attacked, leading to 19 polish free throw attempts (16 hits) before halftime.

Serbia, who appeared to be stunned by the sudden aggressiveness, were unable to answer back immediately, lagging further behind with almost every successive possession (53-30, 20min).

Almost passing at ease through the defensive lines, Poland never lost its flow for the game. What looked like hard work and seemed to be exhausting for Serbia, the group B winners did with playful joy – hitting threes, feeding backdoor cuts, converting on contested shots. With this lopsided 110-70 win in the books Poland will face Lithuania in the semi-finals.

Quotes

Nenad Trunic, Serbia head coach: “Congratulations to Poland, they played very well tonight and have done throughout the whole Championship. In the end we lost the game in the one on ones.”

Grzegorz Zielinski, Poland assistant coach: “It was a very hard game. Until today we have been unable to beat Serbia. For me the key to the game was matching our best attackers against their best shooters. Then we just used our best weapon, our fast break.”

Nikola Radicevic, Serbia number 5: “It was a very tough game, especially physically where they are very strong. I wish them all the best in the final against the USA.”

Michal Michalak, Poland number 6: “We won some good match-ups and we had five good scorers. Five players came in with more than ten points, which was excellent for us.”


FIBA / JB