The team of the Dominican Republic stayed close to Serbia during the first 30 minutes during the opening day at the FIBA Olympic Qualifier for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
The score was 67-66 in favor of the Serbs going into the final period, when the Dominicans apparently ran out of fuel and eventually fell down 94-76.
The teams went backstage for the halftime break tied at 47-47. The third quarter ended 20-19 in favor of Serbia, who in the final 10 minutes escaped to 27-10 to win the match.
The Serbs hit 52% of the field goals and only committed seven turnovers. The Dominicans, for their part, only shot 38% in total, but accumulated 12 three-point baskets.
Boban Marjanovic was the best scorer for Serbia with 18 points, in addition to recovering 10 rebounds. Filip Petrusev contributed 17 and Vasilije Micic 16.
For the Dominican Republic, Víctor Liz and Michael Torres Cuevas added 16 each in a losing cause. Gelvis Solano was the other in double figures with 10.
Serbia’s next engagement will be with the Philippines on Wednesday. The Dominicans will play the Filipinos on Thursday, the same day that Puerto Rico will face Italy in their first match in the tournament. The Puerto Rican team should have played today against Senegal but said team could not reach the tournament because they suffered an outbreak of COVID-19 in their ranks while training last week in Germany.