By Cesare Milanti / info@eurohoops.net
Riga, Latvia – Bosnia and Herzegovina fought hard to get through the Round of 16, but Poland ultimately had the deciding word. After the game, Jusuf Nurkic gave his take on the loss.
“We were leading for most of the night, and when you lose like that, it’s tough. If we won, we would deserve it. It’s not like we were stealing he game. However, sometimes many things happen for a reason. We lost our point guard to injury; that’s where things got tough for us, scoring-wise as well,” he said.
“They were really locked in. A lot of things didn’t go our way, but when you look at the X-and-Os, we were right there,” the experienced center continued about the defeat to Poland.
A huge reason why Bosnia and Herzegovina stayed in the game until the end was John Roberson, who finished with a losing effort of 19 points, shooting 5-of-7 from three. Then, he got injured.
“He was great, he came five days before the preparation. He’s an unbelievable person, understood we were in trouble, and he came and gave us a shot that we needed. We couldn’t do it without him, advancing to the second round. He pulled a hamstring. Sometimes it goes this way,” Nurkic said.
On the other side, there were Jordan Loyd’s 28 points. “He’s had a great tournament, I think he was shooting almost 50% coming to this game from three. Poland made a good decision in naturalizing him. He’s having a hell of a tournament; he’s a big reason why they are here,” he added.
Utah Jazz‘s center said he “looks forward” to playing alongside Lauri Markkanen, and had his take about Finland’s victory over Serbia to make it to the Quarter-Finals in crazy fashion.
“It was a surprise, but Finland has a respectful and very good team. Obviously, Serbia had a better team on paper, but you never know who’s gonna win in the EuroBasket. That’s why super fun for fans.”
“EuroBasket is fun to play, sometimes or most of the time, the favorites are not winning. You see a lot of surprises and upsets, that’s why it’s special. It’s pretty hard to predict,” Nurkic also said.
PHOTO CREDIT: FIBA