Luxembourg 55 – 85 Portugal
For the second time, our U16 national team fails to keep the lead of the beginning of the game. The two teams started the game with a full court man to man defence. Even though Sam Wolter couldn´t play due to an injury from the first game, our squad was very motivated for this game, as the opponent had the same athletic, technical and height characteristics and could also take the lead for the first eight minutes (14-8). However, the 3rd foul of Davy Rocha (our tall center) obliged Coach Basic to substitute it. Unfortunately, Chidi got injured only shortly after his entrance on the court (ankle), which made the rotations even more difficult. Portugal git thus back in the game and took the lead at the end of the first quarter (14-17).
Our guys changed the defence into a 2-3 Zone defence to push the opponent to take shots instead of penetrating but unfortunately Portugal hit many shots from the high post. Furthermore, the4th foul of Davy made our mission even more difficult. Even though Luxembourg played well in offense, the gap could not be decreased and the Portuguese team goes to halftime with a lead of 11 points.
In the 3rd quarter, we went back to an aggressive man to man defence. With three consecutive three points shots, Luxembourg could reduce the gap to 7 points. However, our U16 boys didn’t manage to close the gap due to a lack of concentration and too many turnovers. Portugal got too many easy points out of fast breaks and offensive rebounds.
The efforts of Melchior and Kreps wasn't enough to get back in the game, as Portugal continued to play aggressive and scored out of fast breaks till the end. The game ended with a gap of 30 points (55-85)
You can find all statistics under this link:
http://www.fiba.com/europe/u16b/2017/1108/Luxembourg-Portugal
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