However, coach Ronen Ginzburg’s charges no longer have the fight for three promotion places from the four-member Group F to the next stage. To do this, the Bulgarians needed to defeat ten or more points after Thursday’s 70:79 defeat at Botevgrad.
The best scorer of the match was the Czech captain Vojtěch Hruban with 29 points, Peterka’s pivot scored a double double, as in the previous duel with the Bulgarians, this time for 25 points and 10 rebounds. The remaining duels of the introductory part of the qualification will be played by the Czech team on July 1 at home against Bosnia and Herzegovina and three days later in Lithuania.
Ginzburg’s choice was successful in entering the match and thanks to an 11-point line he was already leading 13: 3, when captain Vojtěch Hruban followed the three threes in a row, two of which were given by Martin Peterka and one by Ondřej Sehnal. In addition, his trio sent the Czechs to the biggest lead of 11 points. By the end of the first quarter, however, the lead had faded and the state of 25:25 was made by naturalized American Dee Bost, the star of the first duel.
Vasil Bačev started the second ten minutes with a three and the Bulgarians took the lead for the second time since the very beginning of the match and after a while they increased it to six points. The Czechs returned to the lead with a seven-point line, which was started by Tomáš Kyzlink and Peterka completed with three and two successful free throws. Ginzburg’s selection went to the half-time with a one-point lead of 41:40.
Hruban started the second half with a three, but the Bulgarians soon returned to the lead. It doubled to five points thanks to Pavlin Ivanov’s triples, who immediately responded to Peter’s shot from a distance. By the end of the third quarter, they had dropped the home run to 56:58.
Bachev started the final part with another shot from a distance, but Hruban’s three at 31:52 sent the Czech team to the lead 64:63. After the basket of Martin Kříž and another Hruban trio, Ginzburg’s selection led by six points. In the 36th minute, after Kyzlink’s basket from a distance, the Czech lead was double-digit and immediately after his next basket, 11-point. However, the Bulgarian finish crowned Bosto by 24:80 24 seconds before the end, but then did not successfully complete the penetration and Peterka decided on the other side.
Solidarity gesture. Proceeds from admission to Ukraine
In addition to the symbolic gesture before the start of the duel, the Czech Basketball Federation has decided to donate the proceeds from the entry fee to Ukraine, which is engulfed in war. “We have decided to send the proceeds from today’s ticket for the match to help Ukraine,” the Czech Basketball Federation said on its Facebook profile.
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In addition, the match took place after the CBF responded to the situation in Ukraine with a boycott. “The Committee of the Czech Basketball Federation guarantees that during the continuing aggression of Russia against Ukraine or another independent state, a national team of any age will not compete against Russia’s national team in a single match or international tournament,” Miroslav Jansta said in an open letter on behalf of the Federation Committee.
“At the same time, we call on Czech basketball clubs to reject any possible confrontation with Russian clubs in the form of an official or non-competitive match,” he added.
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