Superstar Luka Doncic is out of the medal race at the Basketball World Cup with Slovenia. In the quarter-finals in Manila, the 2017 European champions lost 89-100 (50-50) to co-favorite Canada on Wednesday.
Although NBA figurehead Doncic added 26 points, it was not enough for Slovenia’s first World Cup semi-final appearance. In the final quarter, the 24-year-old was even disqualified after the second technical foul.
On Thursday (2.30 p.m. CEST) Doncic and Co. will now meet Lithuania in the placement round. Meanwhile, the Canadians made it into the semi-finals for the first time, where they will face Serbia on Friday (10:45 a.m. CEST/both MagentaSport). NBA pros Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (31 points) and RJ Barrett (24 points) topped for the North Americans against Slovenia.
The Slovenians had previously strolled through the group stage on the Japanese island of Okinawa with victories against outsiders Venezuela, Georgia and Cape Verde before knocking out Australia in the second round and then suffering a clear 71:100 defeat against the German national team .