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BASKETBALL:
Bronze medal for Yugoslavia

Medal after all: Danilovic and Bodiroga (YUG)

Paris, France, 3rd July - Thanks to the better game in great part of the match, Yugoslavia in struggle for the third place beat France 74-62 (33-26) and won the bronze medal.

The first half time passed in a relaxed play of both teams. The Yugoslav basketball players controlled the game and mainly kept the opponent at the distance of 6 to 12 points.

The local team started the second half of the match considerably more ambitiously. Their strong and aggressive game frequently passes the permitted limits. Besides, they made pressure on referees loudly reacting on their decisions, and therefore it seemed that Yugoslavia would hardly reach the medal at this championship. Due to such a game, French players led with one point difference. In the last five minutes, when uncertain finish was expected, incomparably better quality team of Yugoslavia started to play stronger defense, while in the attack, through Divac, Danilovic, Loncar and Bodiroga, who is selected in the best "five" of 31st European Championship, finalized actions in a routine way.

It is the forth bronze medal and the sixteenth one in the total number of medals of the Yugoslav national basketball team at the European championships.

There is the impression that Yugoslavia, although it did not enter into the finals, still has the best quality team in our continent. However, the war condition in the homeland, injuries of key players and shortened preparations considerably influenced the fact that the Yugoslav basketball players, for the first time since 1995, did not qualify for the finals of one great championship.

PARIS - Bercy Hall. Attendance: 14,000.

YUGOSLAVIA: Player Statistics

Player Min 2P FG M/A

% 3P FG M/A % FT M/A % REB (O/D) Totals Ast PF St Pts
Bodiroga 36 5/7 71 0/0 5/7 71 1/5 6 5 4 0 15
Danilovic 32 1/5 20 1/2 50 4/4 100 1/4 5 1 4 0 9
Divac 30 4/9 44 2/2 100 5/8 63 1/3 4 3 3 0 19
Gurovic 20 2/3 67 0/0 2/2 100 0/0 0 1 1 1 6
Loncar 36 4/6 67 1/1 100 3/4 75 3/4 7 2 3 1 6
Lukovski 0
Obradovic 0
Scepanovic 12 0/1 0 0/2 0 0/0 0/0 0 0 1 0 0
Stojakovic 0
Tarlac 8 0/0 0/0 1/2 50 0/3 3 1 2 0 1
Tomasevic 8 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/2 2 0 0 0 0
Topic 17 2/2 100 2/4 50 0/0 1/0 1 0 1 0 10
Totals 18/33 55 6/11 55 20/27 74 7/21 28 13 19 2 74

Legend

Min - Minutes Played
2P FG (M/A) - Two Point Field Goals (Made/Attempted)
3P FG (M/A) - Three Point Field Goals (Made/Attempted)
FT (M/A) - Free Throws (Made/Attempted)
REB (O/D) - Rebounds (Offensive/Defensive)
AST - Assists
PF - Personal Fouls
ST - Steals
PTS - Points

After the Match

Zeljko Obradovic, Yugoslav head coach

"I am really proud and congratulate to all our players. I think that we played a good match, not in big, but in too big problems: Scepanovic was injured, we played without Lukovski, practically we disposed of only four short players, Danilovic and Bodiroga with four personal faults and Loncar as a playmaker what he has not played for a rather long time".

Predrag Danilovic, Yugoslav player

"I think that we can be satisfied with the result. It is the most important that we continued a series of winning medals at big championships. When we have no problems that we were facing this time (situation in the country, injuries and diseases of players), we shall struggle for the golden medal again already at the Olympic tournament in 2000 in Sidney".

Vlade Divac, Yugoslav player

"We are aware that expectations were much bigger. But, having in mind all problems and bad-lucks we had, in my opinion we must be satisfied with this result".