ATHENS (FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men) - Croatia edged Australia 71-69 in the opening game of the Acropolis Tournament in Athens – the third friendly between the two sides in the last six days.

Victory did not hide the fact that the Croatians have a lot of work to do before the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament tips off next week in Greece where Jasmin Repesa’s team will attempt to claim one of three places still up for grabs for the Beijing Games.

Having opened  up a 10-point lead at the end of the first half, Croatia weren’t able to pull away as Australia’s pressure defense caused Repesa’s team a lot of problems.

Croatia blew an eight-point lead in the fourth quarter but managed to scrape a narrow win.

“We had to adjust our game to the Australian team’s aggressiveness, full-court pressure and ability to run the fast break,” said Repesa, whose team will be taking on Puerto Rico and Cameroon in Group D at the qualifying event.

“I am satisfied with the way we played in the first half and in the last minutes, but a part of the game was very bad for us. We must really improve, in defensive rebounding and mismatches, and be more confident against any kind of press.

“We won, but we must play much better if we want to qualify for the Olympic Games.”

Croatia were still on top 65-57 with seven minutes remaining after baskets from Marko Tomas and Sandro Nicevic but the Boomers refused to go away.

Their defense shut down the European team over the next four and a half minutes, with a Chris Anstey basket starting an 8-0 run for the Aussies that leveled the contest at 65-65 with 2:26 remaining.

Veteran guard CJ Bruton, an Olympian four years ago in Athens, capped the spurt with a pair of free throws and after Davor Kus sank two to put Croatia back in front at 67-65, Bruton tied the game again from the charity stripe with 1:58 to go.

Marko Banic made his third free throw of the game but also missed his first attempt from the line to leave Croatia clinging to a one-point lead, only for Australia to miss the chance to go on top.

Kus extended the advantage to 70-67 with 54 seconds left, but Australia refused to go away and a Pat Mills bucket six seconds from the end trimmed the deficit to just one.

Brian Goorjian’s team immediately fouled Kus on the ensuing inbounds play and the Croatian managed to convert just one of two at the line.

Australia weren’t able to make a game-tying basket at the end.

"We looked disjointed on offense, our perimeter players looked lost, our defensive transition was poor and we shot five for 33 on three-pointers," Goorjian said.

"It was an all-around disappointing game.

"We will hopefully get better, but all the same it is disappointing to lose by the same team two times in a row."

Anstey and Mills each had 12 points for Australia and the excellent Bruton 11, while Kus and Marko Popovic paced the Croatians with 16 apiece.

FIBA