Yugoslavia - Spain 78-65

Yugoslavia's Predrag Stojakovic celebrates victory

Istanbul, TURKEY, September 8 (FIBA) - Spain led throughout the first half getting a solid contribution from their NBA candidates, Raul Lopez with 8 points and Pau Gasol with 13. They were aided by their teammates with 6 others getting on the scoresheet. They dominated the paint, finding 24 of their 39 points in the lane which also brought a very high pecentage of field goals: 54 %. On the contrary, Predrag Stojakovic and Dejan Bodiroga scored 25 of their team's total 36 points. Spain's sagging help-defense caught Yugoslavia by surprise, a half where Yugoslavia scored below 40 points. Spain was also taking care of the boards with a 12 - 7 lead, a team effort in which the individual high was only 3.

The third period stayed close with both teams shutting down the perimeter weapons of the opponent. 2 of the 3 3-pointers in the period came from a big man: Predrag Drobnjak. He also shut down Pau Gasol who could only score 2 points. Yugoslavia took the lead (53 - 51) with a jumper by Dragan Tarlac 01:20 remaining in the period then kept on building on it as Spain was scoreless until the end of the quarter: 56 - 51.

Yugoslavia never looked back as they started hitting behind the arc which forced the Spanish coach Javier Imbroda to use his last timeout 06:10 to go with a 14-point deficit. The timeout brought their act together as they prevented the hot hands of Yugoslavian shooters from scoring for 4 minutes and 57 seconds until Bodiroga hit two free throws. However, Spain was far from accurate in their shooting campaign as they could only score 7 points during that span, only cutting the lead by half: 70 - 63. From then on, Yugoslavia kept their cool in their free throws and escaped with a 13-point victory: 78 - 65. Predrag Stojakovic was the top scorer with 30, hitting the back breakers for Spain. Pau Gasol did his job for Spain with a double-double: 22 points & 11 rebounds.