The coach of the Blues looks back on the defeat against Latvia and the elimination in the first round.
Vincent Collet (coach of the Blues, after elimination at the World Cup ) : «First of all, I would like to congratulate Latvia. We led most of the game but they never gave up. They fought like crazy for 40 minutes and they were rewarded for their efforts, their determination. As far as we are concerned, it is certainly a nightmare. After Friday’s defeat (against Canada, 95-65, editor’s note), we expected a reaction. I think we had a, a real reaction. For three quarters, we played much better but it wasn’t enough because we suffered from the same thing as Friday. Our state of mind was not at the level of that of Latvia. It made the difference in the last minutes with the second unsportsmanlike attributed to (Nando) De Colo, which changed the match.
The last minutes? We were leading 74-62 at the end of the third quarter. When we lost De Colo, we also lost the momentum. We were still dominating at that time, not only in terms of score. We lost the rhythm. However, we kept the lead until the last minute. Afterwards, we made a few silly mistakes. Instead of making stops, we gave them throws, we missed a “switch”. We made mistakes that made the difference. We gave offensive rebounds, in particular the one which allowed (Daivis) Bertans to return this big three points in the corner just after. Everything was against us. But it’s never a matter of luck. We didn’t have the same energy, the same chemistry as in the last competitions. »
Statements taken at a press conference
