Marko Popovic drives to the basket

Two teams, Croatia and Ukraine, were looking for their first victory in today's game. Croatia with an impressive performance against Greece yesterday where they were only two seconds from victory. And Ukraine that for long fought hard against Turkey.

But today the two teams started out slowly. Both teams had problems hitting the basket which kept the score down. The first quarter ended 15-15.

The teams continued to show low efficiency and six minutes before the intermission the score was still even, 20-20. Then Croatia started to make their shots, forcing Ukraine to many fouls. Ukranian starter Oleksandr Lokmanchuk got his fourth foul two minutes before the break and was replaced. Croatia went to half time with a 9 point lead, 42-33.

In the third quarter Croatia showed that they really have a good basketball team. Good defence continued to give Ukraine problems hitting the basket. And when Croatia's Gordan Giricek in a short time made two 3-pointers the Croats got an extra boost. The quarter ended with an impressing 21 point lead.

In the fourth quarter Ukraine already had given up hope. The game ended 93-71 and Ukraine will have problems against Greece tomorrow. Four Ukrainian players ended the game on the bench with ice packs. Among them top scorer Andriy Lebedyev and Oleksandr Lokhmanchuk.