By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Pau Gasol struggled big time against the well-focused and highly physical defense of the Turkish national team during Spain’s victory taking only 7 shots and finishing with 11 points.
However, Ufuk Sarica decided to begin his comments during the post-game press conference with him, applauding the great Spaniard’s presence with the national team in yet another summer tournament.
“First and foremost I want to express my respect for the Spanish Team. Especially Pau Gasol. He’s 37 years old and he goes through an intense summer camp. And after a very long season, he fights with the whole until the very end. You see the whole team is together with him in this effort. I think he sets a good example for future generations that want to play basketball. I’d like to point out that. That I really respect Pau Gasol and the Spanish team in particular,” Sarica said.
On the game itself, Sarica added:
“Furthermore I’d like to congratulate my team for its efforts. It was a very intense game with a lot of pressure. The winner goes to the quarterfinals. I’ve never mentioned this before, but now that we finished the tournament I will. The limited capacity of this team. But we hung in until the last four minutes. There were some critical moments in the game and Melih’s 3 that went in and out was a defining moment. Then our team just quit fighting in the last two minutes. But we were there until the end. We proved a point. That anybody could do anything and nothing impossible. With the experience we gained with this will make us more effective in the future. This experience will be helpful for our future tournaments. We showed great spirit and I’m proud of the effort we put together throughout the tournament.”
(Photo credit: FIBA.basketball)