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The Latvian men’s basketball team on Sunday in Sarajevo in the qualifying tournament of the 2022 European Championship gave way to the homeowner Bosnia and Herzegovina, badly throwing free throws and losing the fight for the rebounds under the basket.
Latvia lost to Bosnia and Herzegovina by 73:79 (17:20, 11:20, 17:20, 28:19).
End result. # ThreeStars ???????? #EuroBasket pic.twitter.com/a9roqc8Uee
– Basket.lv (@basketbols) November 29, 2020
Rihards Lomažs scored 19 points for the Latvian national team, 16 points, seven rebounds and six assists for Aigars Škēle, but 15 points and nine rebounds for Mārtiņš Meiers.
Perfect accuracy for Mārtiņš Laks, who finished the race in Bosnia with a single two-point throw and two three-point shots, scoring eight points.
Edin Atičs and Kenan Kamenjas, who also had seven rebounds, scored 19 points each. John Roberson scored 12 points.
To a large extent, Latvia’s loss was determined not only by the imposition of a favorable playing style for the Bosnians, but also by the modestly executed free throws (12/22) and the lost fight for the rebounds (33:46).
The start of the match was better for the Latvians, who with a three-point throw by Mārtiņš Laksas, as well as two two-pointers by Mārtiņš Meiers and one Aigars Šķēle scored 9: 2 in their favor.
After that, a 7: 0 breakthrough gave way to the home team, equalizing the result. In the eighth minute, Edins Atičs scored 20:14 with three points, but by the end of the quarter the Latvians reached 17:20, but immediately after the break Rihards Lomažs took two of the three free throws, one of them as a technical note of the home coach.
At the beginning of the second half, the Latvians got a pit of less than six minutes, scoring 28:21 in their favor after two exact throws by Attic.
After Meier’s two-point throw, he managed to approach by 28:30, but in the end the home team also achieved a 12-point lead – 40:28.
In the second half, the game continued to be slow, with the points difference in favor of the home team fluctuating within ten points, which fully satisfied them, reaching 60:42 after Attic’s exact three-pointer less than a minute before the end of the third quarter.
Latvia managed to change the course of the game in the last quarter, making the game faster. After the three-point shots by Laksas and Lomaža, Latvia approached to 67:71, but the home team did better at the end of the game.
In the end they managed to lose by six points, but with one well-played quarter, the Latvians did not have enough to win.
In the second game of the day, Greece beat Bulgaria by 84:78 (17:25, 14:16, 15:11, 25:19, 13: 7).
The winners are 21 points for Jannis Atinaiu and 14 points for Vasilis Kavadas, while the Bulgarians have 15 points for Chavdar Kostov.
Group H is led by Bosnia and Herzegovina and Greece with three successes in four games, both of which have already secured a place in the final of the European Championships, but Latvia and Bulgaria have one victory each.
The Latvian national team started the qualifying tournament with two losses, but on Friday managed to beat Greece with 77:66. The Bosnians, meanwhile, destroyed the Bulgarian team with 88:49.
There was one change in the ranks of the Latvian state unit. Ingus Jakovičs was entered for the game instead of Māris Gulbs.
The Bosnia and Herzegovina team consists of eight players who defeated the Latvian team in Riga in February (62:61). The most important addition is the naturalized American match manager John Roberson, who plays Madrid’s “Estudiantes”.
Before the second game, the head coach of the Latvian national team Roberts Štelmahers revealed in a conversation with the LBS press service that the Bosnians had broken the Bulgarian unit in the previous fight with an active game. The team has been especially active against the players of the outside line, therefore basketball will be expected to be just as fast from the Latvian national team.
On Saturday, the Latvian national team had a light training in the first half of the day, in which no one has complained about their health condition, even though all basketball players are not in optimal sports form. Štelmahers did not deny that another player from Bosnia and Herzegovina would be useful who can handle the ball well.
The two teams had met each other five times before, in three of which the Bosnians were superior. Even before the qualifying tournament, three games were played in the recent past (2012 and 2013). In the first with 87:84, Bosnia and Herzegovina was superior, but in the remaining two duels, the Latvians were superior with 80:64 and 86:75.
In the last meeting in February, Bosnia and Herzegovina won with 62:61. This was the first game of the qualifying tournament, but in the second the Latvians gave in to Bulgaria with 104: 110. Sunday’s opponents, on the other hand, gave in to Greece in their second match with 65:70.
Composition of the Latvian national team for the game with Bosnia and Herzegovina:
Jānis Bērziņš, Rolands Freimanis (both – Zelona Guras “Stelmet Enea”, Poland), Mareks Mejeris (Perm “Parma”, Russia), Artis Ate, Kristers Zoriks, Aigars Šķēle, Mārcis Vītols (all – “VEF Rīga”), Klāvs Chavar (Minsk “Cmoki”, Belarus), Richard Lomaz (Wilberban USA, France), Martins Laksa (Lublin Start, Poland), Martins Meiers (Astana, Kazakhstan), Ingus Jakovich (Varese “Obenjobmetis”, Italy) .
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