Slovenia beat Belgium to advance to quarter finals

Berlin – Slovenia beat Belgium 88:72 (24:19, 44:41, 63:60) in Berlin on Saturday to advance to the quarter finals at the 2022 EuroBasket. The defending champions will thus play the winner of Sunday’s Ukraine-Poland match on Wednesday.

NBA star Luka Dončić made history again, this time by scoring 35 points to became the first player in 30 years to surpass the 30-point mark in three consecutive EuroBasket games.

Klemen Prepelič added another 13 points, Mike Tobey 12 and another NBA player Goran Dragić 11.

However, Slovenia’s third win at the 2022 EuroBasket came without much glamour.

They opened the game in style with Dončić dominating, building a double-digit lead (16:5) after just four minutes, but the intensity and collective effort dropped considerably and the Belgians soon got the upper hand (20:19).

But Slovenia’s unconvincing performance changed once Belgium took the lead for the first and only time (64:63), starting to play as befits European champions and one of the main favourites for a medal in Berlin.

While the team did its job overall, it did not fulfil the management’s wish to secure a high enough advantage to enable the main players to rest and all players to get a chance at playing.

This is Slovenia’s 14th appearance at the EuroBasket, and the seventh time the national team advanced to the quarter finals, the first time in Belgrade in 2005.

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