SERBIA’S quest to return to the Olympics got off to a good start.
Boban Marjanovic scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and the silver medalists from the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games opened their Olympic Qualifying Tournament with a 94-76 win over the Dominican Republic on Tuesday in Belgrade.
The game was tied at 69-69 early in the fourth quarter. Serbia, which is playing host to the qualifier in Belgrade, outscored the Dominicans 25-7 the rest of the way.
“Of course, we’re proud,” Marjanovic said. “Everybody who comes here wants to make the Olympic Games, the main thing. Everybody’s fighting for that spot, everybody plays tough, good, and I’m proud of my team because we didn’t give up in this game.”
There are four qualifying tournaments—hosted by Canada, Serbia, Lithuania and Croatia—to determine the last four spots in the 12-team field for the Tokyo Olympics. Those four spots will all be determined on Sunday.
Filip Petrusev scored 17 points and Vasilije Micic added 16 for Serbia.
“As expected, it was a difficult game,” Serbia coach Igor Kokoskov said.
Michael Torres Cuevas and Victor Liz each had 16 points for the Dominican Republic.
Serbia faces the Philippines on Thursday and the Dominican Republic plays the Philippines on Friday.
Jonas Valanciunas, meanwhile, had 20 points on 8 of 9 shooting, plus grabbed 11 rebounds for Lithuania, which beat Venezuela, 76-65.
Domantas Sabonis and Mantas Kalnietis each scored 12 for Lithuania, which closed the first half on an 8-0 run to break a tie and kept the lead the rest of the way. David Cubillan scored 11 points for Venezuela.
Venezuela faces Korea on Thursday and Lithuania plays Korea on Friday.
Mateusz Ponitka scored 22 points in 23 minutes, AJ Slaughter added 16 and Poland had little trouble in its opener against Angola, 83-64.
Angola led 19-18 late in the opening quarter; Poland took control by scoring 28 of the game’s next 40 points. Yanick Moreira had a game-high 27 points for Angola.
Germany used an 18-3 run in the fourth quarter to pull off a come-from-behind 82-76 win, forcing Mexico into 10 consecutive misses from the field during part of that stretch.
Joshiko Saibou led the Germans with 17 points. Francisco Cruz led all scorers with 30 points for Mexico.
Vítor Benite scored 15 points and Brazil pulled away steadily over the final three quarters to an easy opening win, 83-57, over Tunisia. Oussama Marnaoui scored 13 for Tunisia.
The game was tied 21-21 after the opening quarter, and Brazil outscored Tunisia 62-36 the rest of the way.