Nikola Vucevic, who re-signed with the Orlando Magic earlier this summer, was efficient in limited minutes during Montenegro’s 84-73 loss to Brazil on Thursday at the 2019 FIBA World Cup, making three of his four shot attempts.
Coming off the bench, the 28-year-old All-Star center scored eight points, grabbed six rebounds and dished out one assist in 13 minutes of action.
Down by as many as 15 earlier in the fourth quarter, Montenegro stormed back and pulled within one with just over four minutes left when Derek Needham drilled one of his four 3-pointers. The Brazilians, however, closed the game on an 11-1 run to finish Group F pool play undefeated.
Needham led the Montenegrins, who will play Japan and Turkey in Group O of the classification round, with 16 points, while Bojan Dubljevic and Petar Popovic each scored 10.