Juniors defeat Croatia

The Montenegrin women's junior basketball team defeated Croatia yesterday (74:66) in the first of two control matches as part of preparations for the European Championship, which will be held in La Palma, Spain, from July 5 to 13.

The match played in Crikvenica brought a constant lead to our national team, except for the opening minutes. It was 5:0 for Croatia, and Petar Stojanović's team first gained the advantage after seven minutes of play, when Valentina Vrcan scored for 12:10. It was Vrcan who completed an 11:2 series for a 16:11 advantage, while she concluded the first period with free throws (18:15).

Montenegro maintained their lead, but Croatia did not allow our team to gain a more tangible advantage, so the "reds" had a 45:41 lead at the break.

Janja Dragišić scored with a foul in the 22nd minute for the first double-digit lead (51:41), and Marija Sekulović concluded the 13:0 run in the first four minutes of the second half (58:41). The Montenegrin juniors had their biggest advantage in the 33rd minute, when Ljube Andrić scored for 66:48.

The most efficient player for Montenegro was Milena Vujović with 20 points. Ljube Andrić had 13 points and 11 rebounds, and Janja Dragišić was in double figures with 10 points.

Valentina Vrcan scored eight points, Marija Sekulović six, Anđela Rakočević five, with 12 rebounds.

Katarina Radulović also added five points (had four assists), and Anđela Rondović had four points and six rebounds.

The same rivals play today at 16 p.m.

This was the fifth test match for our juniors - they previously defeated North Macedonia twice and suffered two defeats against Slovenia, and today's match will be the last test before the European Championship.

Montenegro will play in Group A at the European Championship, where the current European champion - the French national team - is also present, as well as Serbia and Israel, who were third and fourth at the European Championship last year.