Bosnia and Herzegovina basketball players played a great game, but ultimately suffered a defeat against Belgium

ANTWERP, (Patria) - The Bosnia and Herzegovina national basketball team suffered a defeat at the end of the second round of qualifiers for the World Championship in China. Belgium was better on their home court with a score of 79:77.

The weakened Bosnia and Herzegovina team, without its biggest stars, arrived in Belgium after a debacle against strong France in Mejdan three days ago. However, Dulet Vujošević's Dragons secured a place in the final round of qualifiers for the World Championship to be held in China in 2019.

Despite this, a victory tonight would have been extremely important due to the carryover of points into the next round, where every point is of crucial importance.

The inexperienced Bosnian national team players started well. At certain moments in the first quarter, Dulet's chosen ones even had a lead, but after the first ten minutes, Belgium had one point more. After that, a much better performance by the hosts, who took a double-digit lead, but the Bosnian basketball players returned and reduced the deficit to two points by halftime. Interestingly, but also devastatingly, the Bosnian basketball players did not hit a single three-pointer in the first half.

At the start of the third quarter, the Belgians went up by 16 points, making it seem like a new debacle was in store for the Dragons, after the one in Tuzla. However, at the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth quarter, Vujošević's players found some extra strength and reduced the deficit to three points.

A large number of missed free throws for the Bosnian basketball players was the reason for Belgium's lead, with 16 misses from the line.

Bosnia and Herzegovina had several chances at a score of 75:73 to tie or take the lead, but that did not happen then. We had two free throws to tie, but Kikanović made one.

Elmedin Kikanović played a fantastic game, scoring 24 points, while Edin Atić added 16. On the other side, for Belgium, Vincent Kesteloot scored 20 points, the same as Van Rossom. (Scsport).