KAYSERI (2010 FIBA World Championship) – A young but intense Serbian team won Group A of the FIBA World Championship by beating Argentina 84-82. The Serbians finished with a 4-1 record while Argentina has the same mark to finish second.

Serbia will now wait for the loser between Brazil and Croatia to play them on Saturday while Argentina plays the winners on Tuesday.

Argentina had a strong start led by point guard Pablo Prigioni who scored the first 5 points while Carlos Delfino added another 5 in a row to have a 10-4 lead. The 11-0 run by Argentina had them up 16-4. Then Luis Scola started to find the rim and went up 20-7.

After some changes in the lineup, Serbia came back with a 7-0 run led by Stefan Markovic and a 4 point play by Marko Keselj left the first quarter 22-20 in favor of Argentina.

In the second quarter both teams had seven lead changes as the Serbians were led by Dusko Savanovic who scored 9 points and Milos Teodosic added 7. In the final minute Serbia made a 6-2 run and finished the first half up 40-39. Scola kept Argentina close with 17 points, 11 of them in the second quarter.

Not only the starters contributed, but the bench players from Serbia kept the defensive intensity and offensive discipline. The Serbians finished the third quarter up 58-54.

Then in the final quarter Argentina stayed close thanks to a team effort offensively, led by Scola who had 10 points and also by Paolo Quinteros, Leo Gutierrez and Prigioni. Two free throws by Scola with 38.4 seconds left tied the game at 77, but a key three pointer by Dusko Savanovic gave the Serbians an 80-77 lead with 18.8 seconds. Then the Serbians secured the game from the free throw line and by not allowing three point attempts from Argentina.

Savanovic led the Serbians with 19 points off the bench while Nenad Kristic added 18 points, 12 of them in the final quarter.

In the loss, Luis Scola scored 32 points, breaking the 30 point mark for the fourth straight game.

You can see the complete highlights of the game as well as an interview with Dusko Savanovic at FIBATV.Com.

Quotes:

Sergio Hernandez (Head Coach, Argentina): It was a nice game, great players, great characters. Both teams are two of the best teams in the world. Many people thought that we would lose this game intentionally to get one more day off to rest in Istanbul but i don’t care what they thought. However, we showed the war in the court. I am proud of my team and Serbia who played fair.

Pablo Prigioni (Guard, Argentina): First of all I want to congratulate Serbia. It was a tough game. Both teams could win. We can take this defeat from the positive way that we can rest one day more. Also Oberto was sick and we hope him to be between us in Istanbul.

Dusan Ivkovic (Head Coach, Serbia): It was a tough game and also the best game we played in Kayseri. Both teams showed their characters today. We have been watching Argentina for 10 years trying to learn. Today, I think, we taught them something. We took control beginning from the second quarter and we won.

Dusko Savanovic (Forward, Serbia): We have been told that if we could beat Argentina we could beat anybody. We proved this today.

FIBA

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Next generation breathes new life in Serbian team

Dusan Ivkovic relied on a group of promising young players to help bring Serbia back to the top of European basketball and the move paid off with an impressive runners-up place in last year’s EuroBasket in Poland. Now the young Serbs set their sights on conquering the world.

Last year, Serbia showed they could win without most of their NBA players. Dusan Ivkovic led a rejuvenated team to the Silver medal at the EuroBasket 2009 in Poland. At the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey, they will have to repeat this level of performance to truly prove Serbian basketball is back at the top of the world.

Since Yugoslavia earned the gold medal at the 2002 FIBA World Championship in Indianapolis, their results have been worse and worse. They finished 11th at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, then 12th at EuroBasket 2005 on home soil, 11th at the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan and a disappointing 13th place at EuroBasket 2007 which was not enough to qualify to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. At that point, Serbian basketball was seen to be in a deep crisis.

Dusan Ivkovic, who had earned a Gold medal with Yugoslavia at the 1990 FIBA World Championship, was called back to rescue the National Team. He built a young team with promising players who were ready to play hard for their country. Nenad Krstic, Dusan Kecman and Milos Vujanic were the most experienced players while alongside them, Novica Velickovic, Milenko Tepic and Milos Teodosic also rose to prominence to help Serbia qualify for EuroBasket 2009.

Ivkovic then brought an even younger team to Poland last year by including the likes of Milan Macvan, Nemanja Bjelica and Miroslav Raduljica. Success was not long in coming as Serbia defeated Spain in the opening game before an eventual epic semi-final when they eliminated Slovenia in overtime to set up another clash with Spain. They were not able to repeat their first round performance and lost to Spain in the decider. Nevertheless, a team was born and Ivkovic and the players had brought Serbia back to the top of European basketball.

A superstar was also born in the form of Teodosic who revealed himself as one of the very best players on the continent and was named in the All-EuroBasket First Team. The point guard had 20 points and 12 assists against Lithuania in the Qualifying Round, and then scored 32 points against Slovenia in the semi-final.

This new generation is not in its prime just yet despite all these players having grown since EuroBasket 2009. Teodosic was named MVP of the Euroleague, Kosta Perovic won the Eurocup with Valencia. Tepic is now playing with Panathinaikos Athens, and Velickovic with Real Madrid. Milan Macvan, Raduljica and Bjelica have also gained more valuable experience with their respective club teams.

All these players have played together for three years and, consequently, team chemistry is definitely one of their main forces. Ivkovic has also decided to call back Darko Milicic – who had not played for the National Team since EuroBasket 2007 – but the centre decided not to come.

Serbia have the potential to win the Gold medal in Turkey. They will be eager to show that they are back at the top, right where they were in 2002. Serbia will however have to be vigilant in the Preliminary Round against a young team from Germany and also Argentina. Australia can be dangerous too, and they will of course have to beat Angola and Jordan.