Latvia–France 36:81 (13:22, 13:19, 8:24, 2:16)
After the great victory over Germany in the round of 16, another one of the favorites of the competition, France, faced the Latvians.
So far, Le Bleus have won four crushing victories, while Lithuania were defeated by 40 points in the Round of 16. In the evening of Ligo, both teams played a test match, where the French women were much superior with 74:48, but this time the outcome was even more sad.
The menacing French women did not look so scary at first. The height parameters were impressive, but the slow game and inaccurate broadcasts made it possible to keep up in the first minutes. Ours was disappointed by the passing culture, and sometimes the Latvians did not manage to make shots in their attacks.
Rudolph Rozīš’s team also lacked aggressiveness, as the opponents earned their first note only in the last minute of the first quarter.
At the end of the first ten minutes, the opponents gradually started to run in and slowly bent the Latvians’ ears.
With quality cooperation, the Latvians did not succeed in the second quarter of the match either – in four minutes of the game, not a single shot fell into the basket, and after 15 minutes of play, the scoreboard lit up 30:14.
France increasingly incorporated passing into their arsenal and this gave them more contribution than centimeters of height. In the first half, Latvia surprisingly won the battle under the basket (16:14), however, the French women made significantly fewer mistakes (17:5) and dominated in intercepted passes (2:9).
After the break, more powerful notes entered the performance of the Latvian national team. The game became more aggressive, ball movement faster and attacks near the basket more convincing.
Good trends did not last long, after four minutes the attack stopped completely, but the French girls, making a 15-0 breakthrough, could look towards the semi-finals, where Spain was already waiting for them.
The final part of the fight took place in the mode of productive training, without intrigue and tension. France tried different variations of pressing, but ours were already working more on the far reserves. In this cruise mode, the Latvians scored only one two-pointer and one free throw in 16 minutes in the second half.
An unpleasant sight for Latvia was observed in the margin of errors (37:13), intercepted passes (4:22) and assists (7:19). Madara Schmidt scored 12 points for the losers.
Latvia–Turkey 51:65 (8:18, 12:16, 16:17, 15:14)
In the semi-final match for 5./8. Latvia competed with host Turkey for 1st place and broke one favorable tradition. Until now, our team played the Turkish juniors in five European Championship games in a row, but this streak came to an end in Konya. The reason for this was the poor shooting performance, as the national team threw 26 percent of the shots from the game alone.
Especially the Latvians sinned with precision in the first half, and national team leaders Madara Šmite and Estere Petrus were not saviors either, as a pair they made 4 out of 15 shots.
Ours again fought decently under the baskets (27:26), but made more mistakes (10:5). Therefore, the team coached by Rudolph Rozīš scored only 20 points in 20 minutes and was in the lead with minus 14.
Positive breezes started in the third quarter, where our team made several mini-breakthroughs. The Latvians increased the pace, managed to successfully intercept the opponent’s passes, and the difference decreased to eight eyes.
However, before the decisive quarter and at the beginning of the final period of the match, the success of the attack disappeared. Turkey quickly regained a 15-point advantage, but five minutes before the final whistle, the winner was already predictable (40:60).
Krista Lukaševiča was the top scorer with 10 points and 11 rebounds, while Madara Šmite and Sanija Brikmane from Liepāja added nine and eight points, respectively.
Latvia–Poland 56:79 (9:22, 8:21, 23:21, 16:15)
Latvia immediately started the final match of the championship with four mistakes and several missed shots. Polish girls felt more comfortable in fast basketball and in the middle of the first quarter took the lead with 9-2.
Latvians didn’t listen to the ball at all – passes flew into the box or into the hands of the opponents, mistakes appeared in dribbling, the bottom of the basket was laid in the defense, and after just a moment, the Poles achieved an advantage that was greater than ten points.
Nothing changed significantly in the second quarter either, the ball flew everywhere, except in the opponent’s basket. In 13 minutes, the Latvians already made 14 mistakes and attacked the basket with 20 percent accuracy.
During the eight minutes, our team did not score a single point, but haste and chaos already crept into the players’ actions. The Polish advantage was already approaching the 30-point mark, but our statistical box was drawn in gray tones.
After the long break, the scene on the field improved a little and after the score was 12:4, the coaching staff of the Polish national team requested a one-minute break. The Latvians were not ready for changes, and the opponents’ long passes and quick transitions returned the fight to the previous level.
There was a period of silence for us again, but the opponents managed an impressive 13-0 response within two minutes. Even the Polish women, having achieved a big advantage, fought unstable, which untied the hands of Rudolph Rozīš’s team.
Points were accumulated for the Latvians much more smoothly than in the first half, but it did not give much satisfaction and it was a long way until the intrigue was restored.
In the final quarter of the tournament, the points for both teams grew similarly, and the Latvians did not get closer than 20 points.
The overall shooting accuracy percentage improved (31%), but the long shots did not completely go away in this fight (1/18). As a result, Latvia finished the championship in 8th place, but Krista Lukaševiča was the most productive in the last match with 10 points.
Slovenia became the European U18 champions, who defeated France 63:61 in an exciting and similar final.
2023-07-12 03:37:35
#Basketball #girls #finish #8th #place
