Slovenia thrashes ROK in Athens

Slovenia vs the Republic of Korea (Photo credit: FIBA)(BEIJING, July 15) -- Slovenia thrashed the Republic of Korea (ROK) 88-76 in the curtain-raiser of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Athens.

Padoslav Nesterovic had a game-high 16 points plus nine rebounds to set the pace for Slovenia while ROK center Kim Joo-sung buried 21 points plus four assists.

Slovenia built up a 21-17 lead in the first quarter, which was extended to 53-37 by half-time. Slovenia seemed on course for victory before the ROK bounced back with some fantastic three-pointers to trim the deficit.

Slovenia called a timeout when it was ahead 72-67 to consider strategies to suppress its youthful rival.

After play resumed, Slovenia struck twice, preventing the ROK from advancing further on the scoreboard.

Kim Min-soo buried a three-pointer to cut the deficit to just six with 3 minutes and 21 seconds to play but the ROK failed to upset Slovenia.

"Our main problem was rebounding. That's the reason we lost the game." Kim Jo-sung from the ROK told FIBA.COM.

"Considering the fact that we are through a renewing process, I think we played very good today." He added. "This means that we have very much prospect of improvement."

"We are a young team. Today we tried our best, but that wasn't enough to beat Slovenia. We have to work harder in order to win the next game."

The clash was notable given the fact that the ROK is a mix of rising youngsters, whose international experience is almost none.

"(The game) was tough." Slovenian player Jaka Lakovic told FIBA.COM. "We felt a bit stressed, lost our concentration and allowed the ROK to stay in the game."

"We had a hard time handling their playing style." He added. "For defense they prefer one-on-one situations, their big men tend to execute from behind the arc and their offensive game isn't as disciplined."

Slovenia's next game will be against Canada, which is also in group C. Canada has a promising squad that beat world No. 1 the United States and finished third at the 2005 FIBA U21 World Championship in Argentina.