BELGRADE, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Serbia convincingly defeated Estonia 91-65 here on Sunday in the second match of the second round of European Qualifiers for the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup, marking the fifth win in the qualifications.
Aiming to secure the third position in Group L against 4th- and 5th-ranked Israel and Georgia, Serbia started the match against the last-ranked team with the same selection of players that suffered away defeat against Greece last week.
In the first minutes, Bogdan Bogdanovic puts Serbia in front with a three pointer after Nemanja Bjelica stole the first attack from the guest team, but Estonian Sander Raieste and Indrek Kajupank managed to keep guests in the game.
Serbia started to separate in the final minutes of the first quarter when Vladimir Lucic assisted to Dragan Milosavljevic who made a slam dunk to set the score to 17-14, while Miroslav Raduljica continued to build home team's lead to final 22-16 at the break.
The second quarter brought first double-digit lead for the home team when Nemanja Bjelica made a fast breakthrough to score for 33-22, while Stevan Jelovac and Nemanja Nedovic continued to build it to 45-29 at halftime.
The Serbian team opened the second half with a 6-0 series which Raieste interrupted with a field goal and a free throw, but Milosavljevic answered with a three pointer for 54-32.
Three-pointer of Lucic some three minutes before the end of the quarter brought home team to 31-point lead (66-35), which expanded to the 74-40 before the final quarter.
The Estonian team seemed to awake in the fourth quarter and reduced the difference to 26 by the end of the game.
Bjelica scored the team high 14 points for Serbia, followed by Lucic (11), Raduljica (10) and Jelovac (10). Indrek Kajupank was the best in the guest team with 17 points.
With its fifth victory, Serbia strengthened its position as the third-ranked team in Group L, behind Germany and Greece that have the maximum number of 8 wins so far. Behind are Georgia and Israel with three wins and Estonia with two.
Serbia will play the next match in Israel on Nov. 30, when Estonia hosts Georgia. Enditem