Georgia succumbs to Goga Vitaze’s unfortunate exit
Georgia, who defeated France, and Finland, who defeated Serbia. The Eurobasket quarterfinals were an unexpected combination, and Finland won the game, taking the lead throughout the game with an unexpected turn of events, with the bench members exploding 44 points.
In the beginning, they both approached the game plan to eliminate the opponent’s strengths, and although the game was on equal terms, Finland quickly pushed away at the end of the first quarter, as the number of bench members increased. Sass Sarin, who scored four of six three-point shots, Olivier Nkhamhoa and Edon Maxhuni, as well as 18-year-old Mikka Moulinen, also made three-point shots one after another, and the four members of the bench managed to score nine of the 12 shots in the entire game, with an incredible high probability.
From Georgia’s point of view, it was only natural that Lauri Markanen was wary, which slowed the picks to other players, and even when the bench members were opposed, the defense’s aims became vague. Although he was conscious of chasing to a 3-point shot, he was hit with a kickout pass due to ambiguity in covering and rotation, and was hit with an open shot.
Georgia also competed with goals from Sandro Mamkerashvili and Tornike Shengelia, but they were unable to compete with Finland’s offense, which had a very high probability of scoring, and were behind in the first half with 17 points. However, as the second half begins, Finland continues to make mistakes in open shots and transitions, and Georgia has a chance too. Here, Goga Vitaze struggled under the goal and managed to get to six points in the first three minutes of the fourth quarter.
However, shortly afterwards, Vitaze’s extended hand, which had entered the offensive rebound, hit the opposing player’s face, causing an unsportsman-like foul. He was sent off along with the technical foul he received in the first half.
This cut off Georgia’s mood to catch up and was forced to Finland. Vitaze had an advantage when they were on the court, with a goal difference of +3, so Georgia’s bad luck combined to lose a bitter defeat.
Finland’s ace Markanen scored 17 goals, but he showed incredible concentration in the important match, having 17 of the team’s 31 3-point shots (54.8%). It was also his first victory in this tournament in a match where Markanen did not reach 20 goals. We’ll create a good flow and take the semi-finals.
