Losing on your home floor in front of more than 7,000 extremely loud fans is not a great experience. And for Serbia at FIBA Women’s EuroBasket, it was a tough pill to swallow.
Hopes were high. Expectations were raised. And beating Sweden by 38 points in the quarterfinals gave them real belief that a place in the final was attainable. Alas, losing to Spain in the semifinal after fighting and clawing their way slowly into the game, and even getting ahead with just minutes to go, is tough to come back from.
Sonja Petrovic said: “It wasn’t the game we wanted against Spain. Not just because of losing, but we didn’t show our characteristic tempo game or spirit, but obviously we want to finish with a medal and good taste in our mouth.”
A medal is still possible, because the country will face Great Britain for a chance at picking up bronze. But Petrovic couldn’t hold back the tears when she spoke with a sense of finality about the tournament. “I’m super proud of my teammates – they did an amazing job. We stayed together through everything. The way they support me I cannot ask for more. I’m proud of that.”
Serbia spent so much energy to get back into the game against Spain that you wonder what they will have left to take on a side that is approaching Sunday’s match-up with a different mentality.
Great Britain might be the darlings of EuroBasket, and on the four occasions it has previously made the tournament, the best the country could muster was a ninth place finish. Therefore, few people outside the 12 players on the team ever imagined Britain achieving any success in Belgrade. However, rather than wallowing in that lack of belief, the British team is embracing it.
After losing to France in the semifinal, point guard Rachel Vanderwal said: “We were in the semifinals at EuroBasket playing against one of the best teams in the world and we were right there, we could have had that game. They came out in the third quarter and made a little run but we fought on defense. Our defense was great, we just didn’t make shots in the end. But, hey, anything can happen tomorrow.”
The home crowd has been passionate: every time a player from the opposite team touches the ball, boos rain down on them. And every time the Serbian side scores, even on just a free throw, it is like their team has scored a winning penalty in the Soccer World Cup. But this is something the British team has faced before, when they beat Latvia in Riga during the opening game of the tournament.
However, the volume inside Stark Arena has helped fuel an effective full court, trapping defense for Serbia – the likes of which Britain has only really faced once in the opening round. During that contest, Britain and Spain were tied with less than 90 seconds to go – not dissimilar to Serbia’s loss at the semifinal stage, when the home nation was tied in the last two minutes.
Britain is also solid and smart on the defensive end, and going into the semifinal, they had recorded the fewest fouls in the tournament.
Serbia will face a tough decision regarding their second leading scorer, Ana Dabovic. The forward broke her hand against Sweden, and managed just 9 points in the game against Spain before fouling out. Petrovic said: “We couldn’t ask for more from Ana. She’s obviously playing with a broken hand and then you can only ask so much from a teammate like that to sacrifice herself for the team.
“I’m super proud of my teammates. We stayed together through everything. The way they support me I cannot ask for more. I’m proud of that. I think we had a great run the whole tournament, hopefully we can finish that with a win.”
Meanwhile, the British team is still excited to be playing. Karlie Samuelson said: “I think this programme has always had heart. I just came here just in the past two or three years, but I know Joey [Leedham-Warner] and all these girls have been playing and I think we’ve shown in the tournament that we are one of the top teams in the world.”
One might be feeling like they are on their way up, while the other might be feeling the opposite, but you never can kick a team like Serbia when they are down, because they have shown throughout the tournament that they can fight back. And if there is still pride to fight for, the bronze-medal game will be one to watch.