Huge Rally Keeps Montenegro Unbeaten

Montenegro's Taylor Rochestie shot 10 of 14 from the field, including four of six three-pointers

Montenegro stormed back from a 22-point half-time deficit to keep their unbeaten record in Group A of the EuroBasket Qualification Round alive with a 101-92 win over Iceland.

The hosts, long since eliminated from the qualification picture with a 1-7 record, enjoyed an outstanding first half and led 61-39 at the break.

But Montenegro looked a completely different team in the second half as they burned Iceland from long-range and turned the tables on their hosts.

Iceland started strong, and an 11-4 run gave them a 32-23 lead early in the second quarter.

Haukur Palsson's lay-up moved them into a double-digit lead midway through the quarter, and big three-pointers from Jon Stefansson and Jakob Sigurdarson made it 61-39 at the break.

But when Montenegro re-emerged from the locker room they quickly started work on catching up.

Sead Sehovic's three was followed by two more from Taylor Rochestie to make it 71-60, and when Rochestie made another to end the third quarter, it was 76-69.

Rochestie nailed yet another three to make it 76-75 early in the fourth, and an Aleksa Popovic's shot from long-range gave Montenegro the lead, 84-83, with 2:39 to go.

Vladimir Dasic followed it with another and they had moved into a 91-83 lead on Sehovic's free throws with 56 seconds left.

Dasic poured in 38 points, grabbing 14 rebounds, while Rochestie scored 31.

Sehovic also finished in double figures with 11 points.

Montenegro made 12 of 23 (52%) of their three-point attempts.

Stefansson had 32 points for Iceland with Hlynur Baeringsson adding 22 and Sigurdarson 10.

Quotes Iceland vs. Montenegro

Iceland player Jon Stefansson:
"They struggled with us, our shots were going down and we were playing very good defence. We crushed them in the first half and there is a change of mindset for them in the second half. We were expecting them to go on a run like it happens in basketball. They were hard to deal with, they have a very good team and have won all their games in this group. It was amazing how many shots they hit in the second half, just like we did in the first half."

Iceland head coach Peter Öqvist:
"I think the first half was great, we were playing up to our potential and these guys have this level in them. I really don't think we should talk about Montenegro being bad, because we were good and we were playing high level basketball. We did the same down in Israel, when the game was even at half time but then it went in Israel's favor in the second half. I think we should be proud of the level that our team showed in the first half. In the second half, classic thing, we're trying to protect the lead. We're loosing aggressiveness, that combined with Pavel's (Ermolinskij) injury and foul trouble made it too hard for us."

Montenegro player Taylor Rochestie:
"It feels obviously really good to win, we had a really tough first half. We came together as a team. First half we struggled to find ourself, we weren't paying with any energy and we were getting in some foul trouble. In the second half we came out and played more our basketball, the shots were falling and we played good defence."

Montenegro head coach Luka Pavicevic:
"If a team like us come and don't solve problems like switching pick'n'roll, trapping on low post and rotating on energetic but small and intesive players. All these things we did bad. Not because we underestimated but because maybe we are tired, maybe because we lack two important players. We did not attack properly and we did not get back properly and Stefansson scored 30 points in the first half. In the second half we tried to solve the problem in our defence, tried go get to the strong point in our offence. For us, that was Rochestie, especially in the second half we started to score and we started to defend. At the end I think we deserved this win and we wanted this win. Because for us it is importand that we won every team, Slovakia, Israel, Estonia, Iceland and Serbia on the road. I think that's a big job for my team and I congratulate them. I also congratulate Iceland on a good spirit and a good game."