(Champions)

 

Croatia has done it.  They defeated Israel by a score of 57-36.  After a close first half that ended 21-20 in the Croats' favour, the game just got out of hand.  Israel fouled 12 times and the Croats just ran all over the court.  It appeared as if Israel ran out of gas after taking the lead for the last time early in the 2nd half.  Andrija Basic and Marija Kosovski had tournament games.  Overall though, it was a team effort by the black shirts.  Team President Paul Posilovic was elated and the gold medal is in good hands.  The real story of the game were the fans who came out for both teams.  Shouts of "El El Israel" and "Hrvatska" were loud and frequent.  If you blinked for a minute, you would swear you were in Europe.  Without a doubt, the two most deserving teams played for gold. 

 

The Croats began the campaign with a shaky game against Israel.  They defeated them 23-22 in the lowest scoring game of the tournament.  They followed it up with a 38-35 win over Italy which was more lopsided than the score would suggest.  They followed it up with wins over Russia, Turkey and Israel again en route to the gold medal.  It appeared that with every game, the Croats just got better and better.  The black shirts have now done it and will now go to the Wolfond Centre basement on Thursday night to collect their hard-won gold medals. 

 

 

There is no shame in silver.  The Israelis were not expected to do this well after their loss to Croatia back in the round robin.  They were not expected to beat South Korea in the semifinals but they did.  When looking back, the win over Russia in the round robin signalled the turn-around that Israel needed.  They came back two nights later to defeat Italy and earn a quarterfinal date with China.  After disposing of China, a total team effort did away with South Korea.  In the end, the Israeli locomotive just ran out of steam after a tough first half in the gold medal game.  They still did us proud.

 

 

It did not look like the effort that they put against Israel, but in the end the Koreans snatched bronze away from Turkey, defeating them 39-34.  The Koreans were actually outscored in the second half but a 10-point halftime lead held firm.  Many players were noticeably absent on both sides, an indication that bronze was a bittersweet consolation for either squad. 

 

After disposing of China and putting up 43 points against Turkey, the Koreans looked like solid gold medal favourites.  They then went on to make easy pickings of Canada and averaged over 40 points a game in the round robin.  For the tournament, they averaged around 42 points a game which is an amazing stat.   In the end, the Koreans ran into a valiant and determined Israeli squad.  However, one suspects that Croatia would have defeated them for gold anyway, judging by last night's performance.  Defeating Turkey should give them some satisfaction and an eye towards next year's installment of the tournament.