Georgian national basketball team ended up the European Championship 2015 in 1/8 final, losing in equal fight to Lithuania, which caused a great disappointment. The reason of this was not a bad game of the apprentices of Igor Kokoskov. Simply, there was an opportunity to fix the historic result and it is hard to say, when we will have the chance to achieve it.
We were so close to victory on a recognized favorite. Georgian basketball players were in the led for most part of the match. Unfortunately, Lithuanians turned to have a weapon and the Georgians could not oppose anything to it.
Obviously, we mean Real Madrid’s 30-year-old Jonas Maciulis, who had a phenomenal match. Lithuania’s forward averaged 10.8 points before 1/8 final. Yesterday, he earned 34 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 steals and 2 block-shots in 37:39 minutes. Maciulis scored 8 2-pointers of 9, 3 3-pointers of 4 and all 9 free throws.
The Georgian team had its leaders. The team’s captain Zaza Pachulia totally oppressed formidable Jonas Valanciunas, who managed to score only 5 points. Herewith, the center of “Toronto” had 4 personal fouls, 3 turnovers and 0 (!) rebounds, which is the rarest thing.
As for Pachulia, he gained 23 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists in 35:16 minutes. He used 8 shots of 13 and 7 free throws. In the last component, the Georgian team had 17 exact shots out of 17.
Four Georgians overcame the 10-point threshold – Viktor Sanikidze (14 points, 7 rebounds), Jacob Pullen (12 points), Giorgi Tsintsadze (10 points) and Tornike Shegelia (10 points). Tsintsadze and Shengelia got 5-5 fouls and stayed beyond the match, which also played a negative role.
By the way, 2 episodes involving Georgian players hit the best five of the 2-nd day. Manuchar Markoishvili’s and Shengelia’s Alley-oop took the 5th place and the first place – a fantastic assist of Giorgi Tsintsadze, after which Markoishvili scored 2-poiter.
In general, the apprentice of Kokoskov played at a high level and if not the little errors, we would get through to the quarterfinals.
“You lose the won match”, - my Lithuanian friend told me after the match, with whom I watched the game. The huge success passed close to us and this idea made the pain caused by defeat, even more unbearable.
Georgian national basketball team will return to Tbilisi on September 15.
Lithuania – Georgia 85:81 (17:20, 22:20, 22:22, 24:19)
Lithuania: Kalnietis (36 m. 11 p. 4 reb. 7 as.), Maciulis (38 m. 34 p. 6 reb. 3 as. 4 st.), Seibutis (25 m. 7 p. 5 reb. 3 as.), Jankunas (32 m. 17 p. 5 reb. 5 as.), Javtokas (20 m. 2 p. 5 reb. 3 as.), Valanciunas (20 m. 5 p.), Kuzminskas (11 m. 3 p.), Milaknis (16 m. 6 p.), Lekavicius (3 m.).
Head coach: Jonas Kazlauskas.
Georgia: Pullen (23 m. 12 p.), Pachulia (35 m. 23 p. 7 reb. 3 as.), Tsintsadze (30 m. 10 p. 5 as.), Shermadini (5 m.), Sanadze (10 m. 6 p.), Markoishvili (30 m. 6 p. 3 reb. 4 as.), Sanikidze (36 m. 14 p. 7 reb.), Burjanadze (5 m.), Shengelia (26 m. 10 p.), Lezhava (1 m.).
Head coach: Igor Kokoskov.
