Daugavpils, July 6, LETA. The Latvian U-19 team in the third group cup match of the World Cup against Serbia deliberately tried to provoke opponents to the notes, but the opportunities gained from the penalty shoot-out were not realized, after the second failure in the tournament, said head coach Nikolajs Mazurs.
It has already been reported that the Latvian U-19 basketball team in Daugavpils on Tuesday suffered a loss in the last group tournament game of the World Cup.
The Latvian national team in the third game of Group B with 70:71 (24:16, 21:16, 8:19, 17:20) gave way to Serbia, which will meet with Japan in the eighth final.
Rhodie Machoha stood out in the Latvian national team with 16 points and four rebounds, 12 points and five balls under the baskets for Christian Feierberg, and 11 points for Richard Daniel Vanags. On the second side of the field 16 points and five rebounds for Nikolai Jovičs, while Mihailo Petrovičs scored 12 points.
“We fulfilled the game plan by 90%. It is difficult to control the difficult throws over the hands, which we saw in the Serbian performance at the end of the last quarter,” Mazur said about the match. “We deliberately went to the notes, but the implementation of free throws caused problems.”
In the first half, the Serbs attacked the opponent’s basket with an uncharacteristically low accuracy. The close play in defense, which was also emphasized by Mazur, also prevented him from gaining points.
“At first they managed to neutralize them with good discipline. The mistakes started with fatigue. The Serbian national team is a masterful team that knew how to use our mistakes in the last quarter and made cold-blooded throws,” Mazur explained.
One of the leaders, Krišs Helmanis, did not hide his regret about the loss. The basketball player pointed out that the team had attacked a little less in the second half, but at the same time earned a lot of notes.
“We didn’t attack the basket and started to rely on long shots that didn’t fall,” Helmanis mentioned some of the defects. “I think we did a good job, but we could definitely do better.”
The captain of the national team Kristiāns Šulcs also agreed with Helman, noting that the first half was good for the home team, but in the second half they did not succeed with the realization of the throws.
“We started playing slowly and didn’t miss our opponents. We shared passes and took last-second shots that didn’t fall into the basket,” Schultz said. “In the second half, we probably started to wait and tried to keep the lead.”
Schulz expressed confidence that the games against Puerto Rico and Serbia should definitely be won in the group tournament. The captain also stressed that in the eighth final, the main thing is not to miss the second leg of the game, but the name of the opponent is not important.
In the last game of the day in Group B, Puerto Rico and Iran will meet on Tuesday. In the event that Iran wins the match by a difference of 1-15 points, the Latvian national team will be second in the subgroup and will meet Senegal, which has won third place in group A, in the eighth final. Otherwise, there is a risk of meeting with Lithuanians.
Only spectators who have an interoperable Covid-19 or Covid-19 vaccination certificate in Latvia (applies to all ages) can attend the games in person. Tickets can be purchased on the website basket.lv.
The exclusion tournament will take place from Friday to Sunday in Riga at the Olympic Sports Center and “Arena Riga”.
Latvia also hosted the World U-19 Cup in 2011, when the tournament took place in Riga, Valmiera and Liepaja.
In 2011, young Lithuanian basketball players won in Latvia, but Jons Valančūns was recognized as the most valuable player in the tournament. Well-known players such as Dāvis Bertāns, Mateušs Ponitka, Rauls Netu, Kevin Pangoss, Dario Šaričs, Dags Makdermots, Tims Harvardej junior, Jeremy Lembs, Jānis Timma and others took part in the tournament.
Composition of the Latvian U-19 national team for participation in the World Cup:
Krišs Helmanis (“Prat”, Spain), Dāvis Denafs (“Ogre”), Kristians Feierbergs (BJBS “Rīga” / DSN), Richard Kļanskis (“Orlandina”, Italy), Rhodie Machoha (Fuenlavrad “Urbas”, Spain), Richard Debtor (“Ogre”), Tom Skuja (Santantoni “Ibiza Feeling”, Spain), Christian Schulz (“Ventspils”), Richard Daniel Vanags (“Riga” / “A. Kraukļa VEF BS”), Noa Viljamsons (“Latvia University “), Valters Briedis (” University of Latvia “), Noels Enrijs Slivackis (” Riga “/ DSN -” VEF “basketball academy in Valka).
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