Serbia used its superior firepower to overwhelm the Dominican Republic, 112-79, and walk its way to the quarterfinal round of the 2023 FIBA World Cup at the Araneta Coliseum on Sunday.
The Eagles used an unrelenting pace against the Dominicans, zooming to a quick 26-9 lead in the first eight minutes of the match.
As expected, Bogdan Bogdanovic led the offensive thrust for Serbia, but he got plenty of help from his teammates, with all of them contributing to scoring except for Nikola Jovic.
This enabled the Eagles to secure a 21-point lead, 56-35, after two quarters. It widened to as much as 35 points, and Karl-Anthony Towns and the rest of the Dominicans could not do anything to recover.
Towns finished with 25 markers, while three other Dominicans added double-digit figures.
On the other hand, Bogdanovic tallied 20 markers, spiked by three treys. Vanja Marinkovic added four triples to finish with 16 points, just like Nikola Milutinov.
Filip Petrusev chipped in 14 markers, while Stefan Jovic and Marko Guduric added 12 and 10, respectively.
Serbia coach Svetislav Pesic said they did not want a repeat of their loss to Italy; hence, they scored almost non-stop against the Dominicans.
“It was important to show a reaction after the last game (against Italy). The team reacted excellently. It was a very important victory,” he said.
“We had a bad 13 minutes in the last game (against Italy) that cost us the victory, unfortunately,” said Milutinov. “But most importantly, we came back. We didn’t give up. We showed our quality today and won the game.”
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