Georgian national basketball team lost the second match at the European Championship 2015 and complicated their situation in tournament standings, however, still remained the chance of making through to playoffs.
If the Georgians were considered as favorites in the match against Netherlands, it has not been so against Slovenia. The apprentices of Jure Zdovc looked confidently, if we d not count the last minutes.
As we already mentioned, the Slovenians were ahead in fact during the whole match (35:21). Their biggest advantage was 22 points, the biggest “escape” – 8:0, when the score was 70:48. It should be noted that the Georgians had a better showing in this regard. In the 4th quarter, our team conducted a successful period. They scored 11 unanswered points against the opponent (68:76).
It is notable that the Georgians were playing unusually accurate and earned only 12 turnovers.
Unlike the match against Netherlands, Georgian team dominated under the shield and earned 16 points more than the opponent (38:22). We can say that in case of similar statistics, we would definitely win in the first round.
The Slovenians overcame us in distant shooting and it became the decisive factor.
The opponent took 24 three-pointers of 41 and used 8 3-pointers of 13. Overall, Slovenia gained 11 distant shots of 21 (50 %), which is a great result.
In the mentioned component, Georgia looked really bad. Manuchar Markoishvili, Tornike Shengelia and Viktor Sanikidze scored one by one 3-pointers, the rest 17 (!) throws was not scored.
Shengelia was undoubtedly the best player from the Georgians. He scored 21 points in 29:39 minutes and in those moments, when the team was poor in attack, was taking the initiative.
Giorgi Shermadini and Giorgi Tsintsadze earned 11-11 points, the other leaders of the Georgian team have not shown the desired game. Obviously, the most disappointing was Zaza Pachulia’s result. The captain was very motivated, fought in all apisodes, however was very poor in attack.
Pachulia got 4 personal fouls in the first round and could not end the match. Finally, Pachulia played for 19:19 minutes and during this time used the only shot of 6 and earned 3 points.
This time, Duda Sanadze remained without point. He was one of the best in the meeting against Netherlands and the role of Jacob Pullen, slightly remains uncertain. The American player played only 13:47 minutes and used the only throw.
As for Slovenians, Klemen Prepelic used all 4 3-pointers and earned 21 points. Jaka Klobucar scored 3 distant shots of 4 and earned 20 points.
After two rounds of EuroBasket, Georgian national team remains among outsiders. It would be difficult to think about success against Croatia and Greece, most likely, everything will be decided in the match against Macedonia. September 7 is a day off in C group and on September 8, Georgians play Greece.
Slovenia – Georgia 79:68 (17:13, 24:13, 24:22, 14:20)
Statistics: 79:68
Dato Manjavidze, specially for worldsport.ge from Zagreb
