Croatia overcame a 30-point, 13-rebound effort by Dirk Nowitzki to beat Germany 76-70 on Saturday, securing a berth at the Beijing Olympics. Greece also secured a spot by beating Puerto Rico 88-63.
Germany and Puerto Rico were to play for the final Olympic spot yesterday.
Croatia, which qualified for the Olympics for the first time since 1996, held Nowitzki to only 10 field goal attempts. But Nowtizki’s aggressive offensive drives allowed him to get to the foul line, where he finished 19-of-21.
Croatia jumped to a 24-14 lead after the first quarter, but, with Nowitzki scoring 13 in the second and Chris Kaman putting up eight points in the third, the Germans clawed back to take a 49-47 lead at the end of the third period.
The Croats tightened their defense even further and allowed the Germans only one point over the next four minutes, eventually building a 63-53 lead 3:30 left in the game. The Germans closed within 69-67 on a Nowitzki layup with 38 seconds left but then fouled Croatia’s Davor Kus four-seconds later. Kus made the first shot and missed the second but the Croats grabbed the offensive rebound and held on for victory, Marko Tomas led Croatia with 21 points.
“We had a little blackout in the third quarter, but we played great defense early in the fourth quarter,” Croat guard Roko-Leni Ukic said.
“The referees allowed Croatia to play a very physical, not dirty, game and it took us more than 10 minutes to adjust to that and become more physical, too,” Germany coach Dirk Bauermann said.
Greece applied its trademark defensive pressure to race to a 15-4 start against Puerto Rico.
Dimitris Diamantidis led Greece with 15 points, while JJ Barea, Nowitzki’s Dallas Mavericks teammate, scored 16 for Puerto Rico.
7-3 center PJ Ramos got into early foul trouble and their most consistent scorer, Carlos Arroyo, tore a leg muscle in the second quarter. Greece, with many players contributing offensively, gradually pulled away, leading 48-35 at halftime and increasing the lead in the second half.
“If my players play the game they know, we will beat the Germans [yesterday] and make the Olympics,” Puerto Rico coach Manuel Cintron said.
“We knew Puerto Rico is very dangerous,” Greek coach Panagiotis Yannakis said.
Taiwan kept their hopes of advancing to next year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC) alive with a 9-1 victory over South Africa in a qualifier at the Taipei Dome on Saturday, backed by solid pitching. Taiwan last night played against Nicaragua. As of press time, Nicaragua was leading 6-0. Bouncing back from Friday’s struggles on the mound, when Taiwanese pitchers surrendered 15 runs to Spain, Team Taiwan on Saturday kept the visiting team in check, allowing just one run in the bottom of the fourth inning. Starting pitcher Sha Tzu-chen struck out one and allowed no hits, except for a hit-by-pitch over
Taiwan kept its hopes of advancing to the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) alive with a 9-1 victory over South Africa in a qualifier at the Taipei Dome last night, backed by solid pitching. Bouncing back from Friday’s struggles on the mound, when Taiwanese pitchers surrendered 15 runs to Spain, Team Taiwan kept the visiting team in check, allowing just one run in the bottom of the fourth inning. The win was crucial for Taiwan, as a loss would have eliminated the team from contention for the next WBC. Starting pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸) struck out one and allowed no hits, except for
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