AUCKLAND (FIBA U19 World Championship) - An incredible 14-point first quarter from Mario Delas and a shooting explosion from Toni Prostran have set up a hard fought 83-77 Croatian victory over Canada in the first game of the second round at the FIBA U19 World Championship.

Prostran entered the second quarter of the game shooting 2/16 from long range for the tournament, but remarkably nailed four three-pointers for the period, including two in the last 1:39, as Croatia extended an 18-11 quarter time advantage to 43-31 and the long break.

But Croatia did not have things their own way, though, Canadian forward Mike Allison igniting his team with two enormous blocks to start the third quarter, and point guard Cory Joseph taking over the game in the open court.

Joseph scored 12 points for the quarter as Canada surged to a 54-50 three quarter time lead.

Canada’s starters played big minutes in the third quarter though, and when Croatia’s Dino Butorac caught fire with three consecutive long range shots, his team led 66-59 with six minutes remaining in the game, and the Americas bronze medallists could not bridge the gap.

Despite both being subdued by the Canadian defence in the second half, Delas (26 points, 10/16 fg, 10 rebounds) and Prostran (29 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists) were clearly Croatia’s best players, and only Butorac (11 points) joined them in double figures thanks to his late burst.

For Canada, Joseph finished with 24 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals and 0 turnovers, and received scoring support from Mangisto Arop (22 points, 5 rebounds).

Canada have just one win from four games, and must win their remaining two games against Kazakhstan and then Argentina to have any chance of making the quarter finals.

Croatia, with four wins from four games, have all but qualified for the next stage, and can secure a favourable match-up with victories over Spain and Australia in the next two days.


They said :

Mario Delas, Croatia captain  :

“In the first quarter everything felt great. In the third quarter we play lazy.

In third quarter we try to think that (the score) was 0-0,  but obviously it was in our minds that we had the lead. They speed up (their play) and we slow down, I think that was the reason.”

Corey Joseph, Canada :

“I knew at half time that I had to step it up. We got up with our defence (in the third quarter), but then down the stretch we made some mental errors, and number 9 hit some three pointers.

For them, number 10 was hot and number 7 was hot, so we really had to close down those two guys. We came out hoping we could contain them a bit more.”

FIBA