If there is anything like a honorable loss, then there was one today. Sweden really showed that they are a better team than Friday's game against Spain suggests.
From the very beginning Sweden played without any respect for the reigning World and European champions Serbia & Montenegro.
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Milan Gurovic goes to the hoop against Sweden
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In spite of that was it was Serbia & Montenegro that went ahead 18-8 and the Swedish coach Jan Enjebo had to take his first time out five minutes into the game. After the time out the Serbia & Montenegro team couldn't make the shoots as easily and the Swedish team started to play really good defence. They forced Serbia & Montenegro to take bad shoots and Fredik Jönzén and Jonas Larsson started to score at the other end.
The Swedish players Joakim Blom, Fredrik Jönzén and Oluoma Nnamaka made a good job in the paint and took the defensive rebounds and Fredrik Jönzén scored 7 points in the first quarter.
In the second quarter Serbia & Montenegro did a good job defending Jönzén but then Jonas Larsson stepped up and scored 9 straight points.
Serbia & Montenegro had a very difficult time to find shots during the whole game but when they had to they always made the important three pointers that keept them ahead of Sweden. In the third quarter when Sweden trailed by only two points, Serbia & Montenegro woke up and started to make their shots.
In the final quarter, Sweden really fought hard for points but Serbia & Montenegro never let them get too close during the end of the game.
The Swedish team showed fighting spirit and they really wanted to show that they weren't as bad as they looked yesterday against Spain. Serbia & Montenegro played like they were in a scrimmage and did not show any heart until the last quarter when Milos Vujanic made two quick 3-pointers. After five minutes Sweden were down by ten points.
The Swedish coach Jan Enjebo was very pleased with the team's attitude, something which the Serbia & Montenegro coach Dusan Vujosevic probably wasn't. Many times during the first half he
shook his head in despair.
