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Experience won out Tuesday night when Argentina held on to beat Croatia in Rio de Janiero, Both Brooklyn Nets played well, with Scola leading the Argentines with 23 points and nine rebounds. For Croatia, Bojan Bogdanovic had 18 points and seven rebounds.
Argentina jumped out to an early lead and appeared to be coasting to a blowout win, going up by 20 in the third. Then, Croatia mounted a furious comeback in the fourth getting within four points with 30 seconds left. A controversial foul on the Magic's Mario Hezonja led to technicals on both the Croatian head coach and his assistant. Scola then cooly sank two free throws and the game was essentially over. Final score: 90-82. Argentina is now 2-0 in group play, Croatia 1-1.
Scola dominated early with 13 points in the first quarter, hitting three pointers and getting easy shots in the paint. For the game, he was 8-of-15, including 3-or-5 from three point range. He did miss five free throws, uncharacteristic for Scola. The 6'9" big played all but four and a half minutes.
Bogdanovic had a bad game shooting, hitting only 5-of-13 overall, and only 1-of-6 from three. Dario Saric and he were key in the comeback, but didn't have enough. It was the first time Bogdanovic scored fewer than 20 points in either the Olympic Qualifying Tournament or the Olympics. Croatia had beaten in succession, Tunisia, Greece, Italy and Spain before losing to Argentina.
Argentina plays Lithuania on Thursday while Croatia plays the home team, Brazil.
- 2016 Olympic Games: Tournament for Men - Argentina survive Croatia's late rally to remain unbeaten - FIBA.com
- 2016 Olympic Games: Tournament for Men - Argentina v Croatia Boxscore - FIBA.com
- Men's Olympic basketball group phase: Argentina vs. Croatia (Vi:deo) - NBC Olympics
- Rio 2016 Olympic Games - ARG vs. CRO - NBC Olympics
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