Slovenia survived the return of Ukraine in Constantinople, and the stars took a breather / News
Without stars Luka Dončić and Goran Dragić, Slovenia won a hard-fought victory over the highly competitive Ukraine in Constantinople. 86-82 (22-16, 18-16, 21-22, 25-28).
On August 17 (20:15 CET), Slovenia will face Serbia in the next friendly match in Ljubljana, which wants to achieve a 5:0 result in the pre-Eurobasket.
On the other hand, Ukraine will face Finland in Helsinki on August 18 (17:30 CEST). This is their last game before they play 2023 World Cup qualifiers against Italy and Iceland on August 24 and 27.
Five players scored in double figures for the winning side. Zoran Dragić, Aleksej Nikolić and Jaka Blažič each scored 13 points, followed by Mike Tobey with 12 and Edo Murić with 10 points.
For Ukraine, Issuf Sanon had 18 points and Alex Len added 15 points for a team that played without leading men Svi Mykhailiuk and Volodymyr Gerun.
Although Slovenia mostly led, Ukraine managed to come back in the fourth quarter, leading by three points (76:73) less than four minutes before the end and really threatening the current European champions.
Nevertheless, Aleksandar Sekulić’s side responded when things started to fall apart. Edo Murić made a three-pointer to tie the game at 76, while Jaka Blažič and Aleksej Nikolić scored eight points to end the 0-11 streak for the former Yugoslav republic.
Credit Basketball Federation of Slovenia
Ukraine: Issuf Sanon 18 (7/15 FG, 1/1 FT, 5 REB, 2 AST), Oleksii Len 15 (6/12 FG, 2/2 FT, 6 REB, 3 TO), Dmytro Skapintsev 10 (3/ 5 FG, 3/7 FT, 8 REB), Denys Lukashov 9.
Slovenia: Zoran Dragić 13 (5/9 P, 1/1 P, 6 SKL, 2 P), Aleksej Nikolić 13 (4/5 P, 2/2 P, 3 P), Jaka Blažič 13 (4/13 W, 3/4 FT), Mike Tobey 12 (4/9 FG, 2/4 FT, 7 REB), Edo Murić 10.