By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
In front of a great crowd in the Prague Arena, the Czech Republic beat Israel 88-77 convincingly, qualifying for the EuroBasket 2022 Round of 16 in Berlin.
They will play against Greece, which ended its adventure in Group C unbeaten, after getting the 69-90 win against Estonia. After 6th place in the 2019 World Cup and the Olympic Games in Tokyo, here comes another achievement for this national team.
Tomas Satoransky (14 p., 11 a.) had his best performance after struggling in the first games coming off an injury, but the most crucial element on the court for Ronen Ginzburg’s team was Vojtech Hruban, who closed with 25 points, 9/13 from the field and 5/6 from three-point range, including 10 points in the fourth quarter. Jan Vesely (16 p., 7 r., 5 a., with 7/10 FG) played great as well.
After a pretty rough first half, Deni Avdija (12 p., 8 r., 11 a.) stepped up in the third quarter and from then on he did his best for his team, but it was not enough. Yam Madar (16 p., 5 a.) and an almost perfect Tomer Ginat (15 p., 6 r., and 7/8 FG) were also crucial in Israel’s comeback attempt. Guy Goodes’ team concluded its EuroBasket 2022 experience with a 2-3 record, finishing 5th in Group D.
“We’re disappointed, I would say we’re sad. We wanted to finish this week, but this is basketball. We made some mistakes and we paid for them”, Gal Mekel said. “We started the tournament with two great wins. We didn’t succeed to qualify against Poland, and when you’re coming to the last game against the Czech Republic, in front of their crowd, it’s difficult. They deserved to win, they were better than us”, Guy Goodes added.
A dominant first half from the Czech Republic closed at 53-37 and made everyone think that the game was pretty much over, in front of an amazing audience who pushed its idols from the beginning. In the third quarter, instead, Israel produced a great run (14-25), getting back into the game; in the last ten minutes, Hruban and Satoransky cast out every Israelian hope, booking a ticket for the Round of 16.
“We’re happy. It was a very tough group phase for us, we didn’t come with the right state of mind. We’ve had a lot of injuries before we came, we had a lot of pressure. It’s great to reward our fans with this win”, Vojtech Hruban commented. “Great atmosphere for the fans, it was amazing. We started the game well, but we knew we were playing against a good team. We had some problems, but we knew how to go all in. I’m really happy for Czech basketball: in the past, we did some miracles, let’s see”, Ronen Ginzburg said.
Photo Credit: FIBA.BASKETBALL