The first game was a hard task for our national team as our opponent owns tall, strong and athletic players.
The beginning of the game was equalized, both teams played an aggressive man to man defence, which makes the mission of scoring very hard. The 2-3 Zone Defence combined with successful penetration and shooting allowed us to take a lead of 8 points in the first quarter. However, the injury of Sam Wolter put the coach Basic in a bad situation. The guards had difficulties against the high pressure of the British defence (due to the absence of rotations), but our young players managed to end the first quarter leading by 5 points (13-18).
In the second quarter, our squad had difficulties in offense, hesitation made us lose too many balls. The British team took advantages of the turnovers and scored 4 times in a row from the 3 points line to increase the gap to 13 points at halftime (33-20).
The last two quarters were similar to the second one, our opponent kept scoring out of fast breaks and behind the 3 points line while we were struggling in front of their defence. Hesitation in offense and boxing out in defence were our weak points that didn’t allow us to find a way back in the game.
The end score 77-43 doesn´t reflect our players’ efforts, especially in defence.
You can find all statistics under this link:
http://www.fiba.com/europe/u16b/2017/1008/Great-Britain-Luxembourg
«
