Serbia Pip Croatia In OT

Serbia needed overtime to overcome Croatia 77-70 on the final day of the Qualifying Round at the U18 European Championship Men 2009 in Metz, France.

In a game that was tight for the most part, Branislav Djekic drained a three-pointer to tie the game at 64 with 35 seconds left in the game.

Serbia's tight defense forced Croatia into a shotclock violation the next time down and with just a handful of seconds left, Petar Torlak ran up the court, heaved a three-pointer that missed.

In the extra session, Djekic again hit from downtown to put Serbia up 67-64 but Croatia tied the game on Toni Brnas' three-point play with three minutes remaining.

Torlak then made a free-throw and Dejan Musli cleaned up Lazar Radosavljevic's missed lay-up with a putback dunk for a 70-67 lead with 2:25 to go. Again though, Croatia tied it as Ivan Batur had a three-point play of his own.

But that was to be as close as Croatia would get as Radosavljevic made a lay up before Danilo Andjusic and Torlak made a free-throw each for a four-point edge, 74-70.

Serbia then ran down the clock and Andjusic made a three-pointer at the buzzer for the final scoreline.

The Serbians jumped to an early 9-0 lead but Croatia gradually got back in the game. Toni Prostran - who was back in the line-up and played all 45 minutes - and Domagoj Bubalo provided some offense for Croatia as they trailed  18-13 at the end of the first quarter.

Musli's dunk early in the second period put Serbia up 20-13 but he then goal-tended a Babulo three-pointer and Toni Brnas hit a pair of free-throws with 5:22 left to tie the game at 22.

Prostran found Bubalo for an open three-pointer and Croatia's first lead, 27-24, with 2:12 to go before the break.

Musli dunked for Serbia to get within one, 27-26 and Petar Torlak hit a pair of free-throw while Prostran made one of his two foul shots in the last minute for the half-time score of 28 all.

Serbia pulled away slightly in the third quarter, taking a 48-41 lead on a Musli lay-up but Croatia scored six unanswered points to end the period down by just one, 48-47.

Prostran edged Croatia in front early in the final frame and it was back and forth until the star point guard made a nice bounce pass to Dragan Sekelja for a lay up that made it 64-61 in Croatia's favour.

Djekic  then sent the game into overtime where Croatia ran out.

Musli had 14 points, 17 rebounds and four blocks for Serbia while Bubalo had a game-high 20 points to go along with nine rebounds before fouling out late in regulation.