The basketball team of Bosnia and Herzegovina defeated France tonight in Skenderija after overtime with a score of 96:90 in the World Cup qualifiers.
The BH team had a really phenomenal match tonight and achieved a great triumph that announced the Eurobasket.
The French came to Sarajevo as absolute favorites, but like in the match against the Czech Republic, they had a very bad start to the match.
BH took advantage of that. Jusuf Nurkic and John Roberson led the game of the national team of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and after the first part it was plus 14 in favor of our selection, 28:14.
As expected, the French ‘started their engines’ in the second leg. The difference between Bosnia and Herzegovina the selection began to decrease, so with a minute and a half left in the first half, France took the first lead, 40:38, with Thomas Heurtel’s halftime points.
By the end of the second part, France’s advantage increased to plus eight in favor of the visiting team, 46:38.
At the beginning of the third part, the French went to plus 12 (51:39), but then an incredible series of Bosnia and Herzegovina team.
The chosen players by Adis Beciragic completely stopped the French stars. France remained scoreless for almost nine minutes in the third period, and the BiH team used that for a 20:0 run and an eight-point lead entering the final period (59:51).
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s basketball players maintained their advantage in the last part, it was plus 10, but with two three-pointers in a few seconds, Evan Fournier reduced the difference to minus three, 69:66 five minutes before the end.
Then came some incredible refereeing decisions. They played everything in favor of the opponent, who returned to the match with a minute to go, and with Fournier’s dunk four seconds before the end, the match was tied at 76:76. Roberson missed the game-winning shot and it went to overtime.
The BiH team did not give up in the extra five minutes. They continued with an excellent game, but with 30 seconds to go, France somehow managed to come back with Gobert’s points to reach 83:83.
At three seconds before the end, a mistake by Gobert. He committed a foul in the attack, but there was too little time to do anything in the attack.
BiH played phenomenally, especially Kamenjas in defense, and then Lazic finished the job with a three-pointer and broke the match.
Jusuf Nurkic led Bosnia and Herzegovina with 21 points, Roberson had 18 and Musa 17. For the French, Evan Fournier scored 24 points, Sportsport writes.
