SARAJEVO (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European Pre-Qualifiers) – After winning starts to their FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European Pre-Qualifiers campaigns, Armenia, Estonia, Kosovo and the Netherlands will be looking to stay on the right path on Wednesday evening.
With only a top-two finish guaranteeing safe passage to the World Cup Qualifiers, every single misstep can still prove costly, even for teams leading their respective groups in the early stages of the Pre-Qualifiers.
"After two games, we have two wins, but we are still very far from the finish line and there is still a lot of work to be done."
After opening their Pre-Qualifiers with home wins against Slovak Republic and Sweden in Yerevan, surprise Group A leaders Armenia will now have to prove their competence on the road with a trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Ryan Boatright has been the man providing most of the firepower for the Niksa Bavcevic-coached side, with Lucas Fischer, Allyn Hess and Andrew Chrabaszcz also making significant contributions.
However, the Mirza Delibasic Hall in Sarajevo will not be an easy place to get a positive result, lacking the strong Armenian home support they had on their home court and coach Bavcevic seems well aware.
"After two games, we have two wins, but we are still very far from the finish line and there is still a lot of work to be done," he said after a convincing 82-69 win against Sweden last week.
In spite of sitting atop the standings in Group A as the only undefeated team, the team's 61-year-old tactician from Croatia has been trying everything to ward off complacency after early success.
"I don't think about the next stage of the Qualifiers and I have forbidden my players to think about it too. The only thing that should be on our minds is the next game against Bosnia and Herzegovina," said Bavcevic.
Missing some of the country's well-established stars, Bosnia and Herzegovina have found the answer in the 18-year-old teenager Dzanan Musa who is currently the competition's second-leading scorer at 24.5 points per game, after dropping 32 in the last game against the Slovak Republic.
In spite of getting an 84-71 bounce-back win against the Slovaks to get on the board in the Pre-Qualifiers and improve to a 1-1 record, Bosnia and Herzegovina coach Dusko Vujosevic was none too pleased the attitude of his players.
"We have a strange habit to underestimate our opponents and it is incredibly hard to play a game that you think you have won even before tip-off," said the playcaller, who will likely not have to deal the same issues when his side entertain the group leaders.
In the other game of the group, the Slovak Republic will have little room for error with a 0-2 mark after losing the first couple of games to Armenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as they prepare to entertain the Vedran Bosnic-coached Sweden.
Elsewhere, the Netherlands will be looking to carry over momentum from their 79-72 opening victory against Austria in Group B, to their home debut in Amsterdam against Albania, who started their Pre-Qualifiers campaign with 79-51 blowout loss to the Austrians in Tirana.
After picking up victories against the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo and Estonia will now face each other to break the power sharing at the top of the Group C standings, with both sides currently sharing identical 1-0 records.
Having celebrated their first international triumph with a 72-68 win over the Macedonians in Prishtina behind a 28-point scoring display by Dardan Berisha, the Brad Greenberg-coached Kosovo will be looking for their maiden road victory in the Estonian capital Tallinn.
The action in Group D will be of a somewhat different nature, with the winless Belarus and Portugal sides meeting in Minsk to get their campaign off the ground after both sides registered losses to runaway group leaders Bulgaria.
On both occasions, the Bulgarians celebrated double-digit victories, beating Portugal 82-71 on the road in Sines and taking care of Belarus 78-68 at home in Botevgrad last Saturday.
FIBA