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ISTANBUL: Serbia recovered from a slow start to overcome fierce rivals Croatia 73-72 and reach the quarter-finals of the basketball world championships on Saturday with a thrilling, last-second win.
The game had looked like being anything but a tight encounter in the opening quarter as Serbia were made to pay for only grabbing two rebounds as they found themselves behind 27-19 at the break.
But when they began to rebound in the second quarter, they reaped the benefits offensively to be down by just two, 36-34 at half-time.
Back from suspension, Nenad Krstic of the Oklahoma City Thunder was showing his class, leading all scoring at half-time with 10 points.
Bojan Bogdanovic and Roko-Leni responded for the Croats as both claimed seven points.
Following the break, the lead ebbed and flowed with Serbia taking a four point lead 54-50 into the final quarter.
Serbia looked like they would take the game away from Croatia, stretching the lead out to seven, only for Marko Popovic's 14 final-quarter points to bring Croatia surging back into the game.
Down by a point (70-69) with 11.6sec remaining, and with Serbia in foul trouble, Popovic drew Ivan Paunic into fouling him, sending him to the line for two free-throws.
Missing the first, he made the second tying the game up.
Aleksandar Rasic in return made an easy lay-up but Popvic would again draw the foul, going to the line for a further two free-throws.
This time he made no mistake making both shots tying the game at 72-72 with five seconds left.
But it was Rasic who would have the last laugh, drawing a foul while shooting with 0.1sec remaining.
Making his first free-throw was enough with Serbia winning by the tightest of margins.
Krstic would finish the game as the best of the Serbs with 16 points, supported by Rasic with 15.
Popovic was the best of the Croatians with a game high 21 points alongside five assists and five rebounds. - AFP/fa
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