BASKETBALL – Lauri Markkanen scored 17 points and blocked four shots to lead Finland to a 93-79 win over Georgia yesterday that sees the Nordic nation through to the semi-finals of Eurobasket for the first time.
The Finns will face Germany in tomorrow’s semi-final after the Germans came from behind to defeat Slovenia 99-91 on the back of a blistering fourth-quarter performance, with old foes Turkey and Greece facing off in the other game in the final four.
More known for their exploits in ice hockey, the Finns shocked the basketball world by defeating favourites Serbia in the last 16, and though they led for most of the game, they had to survive a spirited third-quarter fight-back by the Georgians.
Markkanen made a number of key plays throughout the game and got plenty of help from his teammates.
Top scorer Mikael Jantunen netted 19 points and hit three of his seven three-pointers, with the bench chipping in with a whopping 44 points.
“It was a pretty typical performance for us – we take the lead, then it gets exciting and we end up winning at the end,” Markkanen said with typical understatement.
“Our play was a bit up and down at the beginning of the tournament, (but) now we have gotten better in every match and the most important thing is that we keep going like that,” Jantunen added.
Germany, meanwhile, avoided being the next title favourites to be eliminated earlier than expected but they needed a massive battle to overcome Slovenia.
With 9,038 spectators on hand at Arena Riga, Slovenia were not fazed by Germany’s undefeated run to the quarter-finals and finished the first quarter on a 10-2 surge to lead 32-21 after 10 minutes.
Slovenia were ahead 34-21 early in the second period when Germany picked up their defence and got out and ran and mounted a 13-2 run to pull within 36-34.
Germany tied it 39-39 but Slovenia were able to fend off Germany and went into the intermission ahead 51-45.
Luka Doncic picked up his fourth foul just 2 minutes into the second half but remained in the game and Slovenia stayed ahead 59-52. Germany just could not make a dent in the lead and Slovenia were up 73-64 late in the third quarter.
Tristan Da Silva gave the Germans some momentum going into the final 10 minutes with a half-court buzzer beater to make it 74-70.
The push continued in the fourth with two triples to lead 82-77. Slovenia did not buckle and pulled back ahead. But Germany showed their defence with just 2 points over nearly 3 minutes to move ahead 96-89 with a minute to play.
Germany had a number of big performances but Daniel Theis stood out above the rest. He scored 15 points to go with 9 rebounds and 2 assists.
Franz Wagner added 23 points and Dennis Schroder picked up 20 points and seven assists.
Slovenia could not get enough production besides Luka Doncic, who tallied 39 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists in the loss.
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