So close... 5,5 minutes... in the last 5,5 minutes Beralus outscored us 20:5. Until than we were on the same level.
Before the game, it was clear that Belarus will play TIE, thanks to their home court advantage and their high enthusiasm. So I had to use CT to have at least a small chance.
A normal line up wouldn't help and thanks to our unique Widerström I could play a mixed up RnG. Säfen was our PF. I wanted him as the main scorer and he needed an effective missmatch. So PF was the only solution. Birgersson showed at the end of last season that he can play a RnG (U25 match against Germany). He moved to C and created a missmatch there. 7 out of 9 3ptrs speak for themselves.
I hoped that Mazzolini or Martinsson would score as the third force. And it was martinsson who showed a great performance. With Säfen at PF, I needed someone who could play as a SG and as a big. And that's where Widerström enterd the stage. He was our best passer today and defended as a C.
Bottom line is that the starting five outperformed Belarus. All five have a positive +/- rating!
Unfortunately you need more than five players and during the time when our bench was on the field, Belarus could close the gap. And during the last 5,5 minutes they showed a monstrous performance by outscoring us with 20:5.
Sorry that it wasn't enough again. There is always this feeling, that we need only one last step to hold our ground. Most of the losses were because of a meltdown of a couple of minutes.
During the next weeks I will play some scrimmages. We have a lot 32+ guys at the team and I will test how the team can run with a starting five which is 25-31 y/o.