By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Germany saw Montenegro coming back from a 27-point deficit and cutting the margin to three with 26 seconds to play before getting an 85 – 79 win and the ticket for the 2022 EuroBasket quarterfinals. It’s the first time that the German side advanced to the Top 8 of the EuroBasket since 2007.
After trailing 51 – 24 at the beginning of the third quarter, Montenegro began a huge counterattack and ultimately managed to approach at a shooting distance when Vladimir Mihailovic scored for the 80 – 77 with 26 seconds left on the game clock.
“Two halves, two different ball games,” Germany coach Gordie Herbert said. “I thought we played extremely well in the first half – good energy, the ball moved. Second half we saw the zone, struggled and lost momentum. We lost some discipline on the defensive end, we lost some focus. We worked on the zone in practice yesterday and it looked like we had never seen a zone before. Give credit to our players. They found a way.”
Kendrick Perry, the main mastermind (25 points, six assists) of Montenegro’s comeback fouled Maodo Lo and the referees upgraded the foul to unsportsmanlike after watching the instant replay. Lo made his free throws and then Dennis Schroder scored three more from the line due to a technical foul on Montenegro head coach Bosko Radovic. With the difference now at eight points, Germany was safe and sound once again as the game was approaching its end.
“I want to credit Germany,” Perry said. “They fought hard in front of a great home crowd. Over the course of the game, we had our chances to fight back, but when you dig yourself a 20-point hole at halftime you have to exert a lot of energy to get that back. Regardless, we still had our chances. I’m proud of how we fought. We could have given up and said: Okay it was great while it lasted. We already accomplished enough but it’s a credit to the resilience of this team that we gave it our all and came up just a little short.”
Schroder finished with 22 points plus eight assists while Maodo Lo scored 14 and Franz Wagner had 14 points before he exited the game late in the third period due to an apparent ankle injury.
Bojan Dubljevic added 22 points and seven rebounds for Montenegro.
Photo Credit: FIBA.BASKETBALL