Latvian basketball team World Cup qualification wins Belgium by one point / Article

Dairis Bertāns was the most productive in the ranks of the Latvian national team with 13 points, he also won six rebounds, but Klāvs Čavaras and Rihards Lomaža had 12 points each. Meanwhile, Retin Obasohan stood out in Belgium with 18 points.

Supported by the fans, the Latvian basketball players started the game more actively, leading with four points in the lead. The Belgians reduced the difference to two, but then Dairis Bertāns was punctual, and later Klāvs Čavars also “fired”, and soon the result was already 13: 5 – the Belgians were forced to demand a minute break. However, even after that, the Latvian national team continued to increase the difference in the result – the catastrophic long-range shots did not reach the goal for the Belgians. And the first quarter ended with a very pleasant result – 23:10.

In the second quarter, the Belgians no longer focused so much on long-range shots, but also attacked from the bottom of the basket. However, this did not really help them to significantly reduce the difference in result. In the middle of the quarter, the Latvian national team lost the game thread, but regained it, reaching 32:14, and the Belgians were again forced to demand a minute break. After that, the accuracy of the long shots was already better, seven non-response points were scored, and the difference in the result gradually began to fade. During the break, the players went with a score of 43:25.

In the third quarter of the game, the head coach of the Latvian national team Luka Banki involved all the players in the game, but in the introduction the performance faltered, however, in the middle of the quarter the Latvian national team had a 17-point advantage. But then the Belgians were able to make a breakthrough and reduce the deficit by five points, and they continued to burn. The third quarter was quite unsuccessful and ended with a less convincing advantage – 57:45.

At the beginning of the closing quarter, the attack of the Latvian national team did not take place. In the middle of the quarter, the Latvian national unit was only ten points ahead, and it continued to wear down to six. But Bertāns managed to take one of two free throws, and by the end of the game, Latvia’s lead was seven points. 45 seconds to bugging is now just a plus four. Mistakes, unnecessary notes, and 66:65 20 seconds until the end of the game. Everything was decided by the defense, and this time it was level.

This time, Jānis Strēlnieks, Artūrs Kurucs, Rolands Šmits, Aigars Šķēle, Artūrs Žagars, Rinalds Mālmanis and Anžejs Pasečņiks could not help the team for various reasons.

The Latvian national basketball team will play the next game on February 28 in Riga, meeting again with Belgium. In sub-group A, after three games, Serbia, Latvia and Belgium have won two games, but Slovakia has suffered three losses.

In the first qualifying round, 32 European Zone teams are divided into eight groups of four. Latvia is drawn into Group A, where forces are competing with Belgium, Serbia and Slovakia. A total of six games must be completed. The next window is from June 27 to July 5.

The three strongest teams in each group will advance to the second round of the qualifying tournament, where six more games will be played.

The three strongest teams of the four groups will qualify for the World Cup final – 12 national teams will represent Europe. The final of the World Cup will take place in September 2023 and will take place in three countries: Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines.

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