Though we went 0-3 in last week’s exhibition tournament in Serbia, we accomplished our goal of playing tough opponents. Nobody likes to lose, but hopefully the experience of competing against three upper echelon teams will help us grow. We travel to Poland at the end of this week to take on Poland and Sweden, so we’ll get another chance to test our chops before heading to EuroBasket 2013.
Following the Spor Toto World Cup in Izmir, the Ukraine National Team flew to Istanbul. We’ll have a week of practices leading up to another 4-team international tournament that includes Montenegro, New Zealand and Turkey. This will be our final round of friendlies before heading to Lithuania for EuroBasket 2011. My biggest concern is all of the injuries we’ve had. Our team is banged up, but I don’t want to make excuses. We’ve got to play through the injuries and get past them.
On the evening of our arrival in Istanbul, Sasha Volkov, Sasha Larin and the entire coaching staff went to dinner at a restaurant on the water. This place only serves three or four different types of fresh fish. They catch the fish and bring them right in so you pick out the one you want. It was great.
After losing to Turkey in overtime on opening night and dropping our second game against Serbia, the Mighty Ukes rallied to beat Germany in the final game of the Spor Toto World Cup in Izmir. Germany entered the contest undefeated after beating Serbia in Game 1 and Turkey in Game 2. They sat out some players in Game 3, but I’m sure they expected to beat us given our 26-point loss to Serbia the previous night.
However, our defense was much better against Germany. We also shot the ball well and took advantage of our fast break opportunities, which resulted in a big overall improvement from the night before. It was good to win one against a high-caliber team, particularly on the last night of the tournement. Despite the loss, Germany wound up placing first in the Spor Toto World Cup. Serbia beat Turkey in Game 3 to clinch second place, while Turkey and Ukraine both wound up 1-2.
Photos courtesy of Oleksiy Naumov from the Ukrainian Basketball Federation.
After a tough overtime loss to Turkey on opening night, the Ukraine faced Serbia in Game 2 of the Spor Toto World Cup. We competed well during the first and second quarters and trailed by just one point at halftime, 38-37. But Serbia wore us down with their tough defense in the second half. They forced turnovers and made it difficult for us to set up our offense. Unable to sustain our momentum, we wound up losing the game by 26 points, 83-57. Serbia is a very good team. They lost to Germany on the first night, but two of Serbia’s starters sat out during that contest. Tomorrow afternoon we will try to regain our footing with a win against the talented German squad. They beat Turkey today, so they’re 2-0 heading into the final game of this exhibition tournament.
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