Before Spain went up against Croatia in the last quarter-final of the EuroBasket, the other three teams who had also won the group stages – Russia, Lithuania and Slovenia – all lost their games and the chance to make it to the final four.

But Spain and Jose Calderon didn’t not believe the same was going to happen to them, even after a very rough start.

“There’s a saying that goes 'there is always an exception to the rule',” said Calderon after Spain’s 101-85 overtime win against Croatia. “The rule here seemed to be that the winners of the group had too much rest and were going to lose the quarter-finals. We didn’t want to prove that rule to be right in our case.”

It certainly took an unbelievable second half performance from Mario Pesquera’s men to avoid falling victim to the underdogs.

		Mario Kasun's injury was a key turning point in the game for Spain

Spain came out flat in the first half and the Spanish head coach believes it may have been down to the players’ lack of focus.

“I am not sure that we were fully aware and concentrated on what we had to do. But even if we weren’t making our shots, we stayed close to Croatia and stayed within striking distance,” he said.

Calderon doesn’t feel the shots Spain took in the opening 20 minutes were by any means bad shots, or shots they hadn’t already taken in their group games. They just weren’t falling for the Group D winners.

“We weren’t forcing anything in the first half. We weren’t playing differently on offense than we did against Serbia & Montenegro or Latvia. Maybe we were a bit rusty from the long lay-off.”

The long lay-off – four days for the teams that played their quarter-finals today and three days for those who played yesterday – has been mentioned as a reason for the upsets of the group winners – but thanks to Spain’s win, the excuse is no longer valid.

The difference here, Calderon offers, is that Spain realised they weren’t going to put the game out of Croatia’s reach in the first half.

“We wanted to come out strong and get a good lead early on. But maybe we thought too much about winning the game in the first quarter or before half-time and it doesn’t work like that, especially not against a team as talented as Croatia.

“In the end we were able to win because we stuck in it for the full 40 minutes, or rather in the case of tonight, the full 45 minutes.

“We were able to outlast Croatia. It’s as simple as that really. They got off to a great start especially thanks to Mario Kasun. Luckily for us or unluckily for them, he got injured and couldn’t get back in the game. Had he returned, who know what would have happened. I think when we went into overtime they got nervous whereas we stayed calm and kept the momentum we had built in the second half.”

Croatia had to make do without two of their starters, as guard Zoran Planinic also went down with an injury, a sprained ankle suffered in the first half.

Spain made a game of it early in the third quarter when they inserted Fran Vasquez in the line-up in place of Felipe Reyes and looked like they got a sudden burst of energy out of it. Pesquero’s men looked more active on the defensive end, crashing the boards and looking to run the ball down the court – with a lot of success and much to the coach’s liking.

“I’m happy with the way we played early in the third quarter and that we were able to maintain it for most of the second half,” Pesquera said.

“We looked a lot more active and we made a few adjustments at both ends of the court that helped us get back in the game and eventually put us in a position to win. We rebounded well and defended tirelessly against a very talented side that was playing without two key players.”

Spain had two heroes on the night in Juan Carlos Navarro who finished with a tournament high of 36 points and got 26 points and 9 rebounds from the young Vasquez. Calderon believes that if either one of them can reproduce that kind of game again tomorrow, it will be very hard for Germany to stop Spain from reaching the finals.

“We all played well tonight. It was another good team effort. But we have to take our hats off to Navarro and Vasquez because they really turned it around for us in the third period. I wish they could play like that every game! It would make it easier for all of us.”

While he doesn’t talk about individual efforts, Pesquera hopes his men can build on tonight’s second half display and keep it going for as long as possible against Germany tomorrow.

“We all have good games and bad games. Our game against Israel was a bit disappointing compared to what we’d done against Serbia & Montenegro and Latvia. But we’ve recovered well. Some nights are good and some are bad. Tonight we started with a bit of bad and finished with a lot of good.”

As for the events in the closing minutes of the overtime when Croatia lost its cool and started complaining to the referees, Pesquera isn’t going to get sucked into the dispute.

“I have no comments to make about the refereeing – good or bad. I have made a rule not to talk about it and I don’t feel any different tonight than I did after the game on Sunday (the loss against Israel). All you have to do is look at our games. We have played two overtime games. I’m happy that we’ve won both. I feel we deserved to win both.”