A lot of games have been played since my last report:
Sweden-
Spain 96-130
(75172)Quite expected defeat, since we previously had to play normal against Belarus, and therefore Spain had an advantage in quality and enthusiasm. We started the game strong, led 28-22 after Q1, but Spain turned the game around until the half time. Quite surprisingly,
Frank Jonasson was our player of the match, he collected 17 rebounds and made 19 points with a superb FG 7-8.
Sweden-Austria 123-111
(75178)An important game for us, since, according to quality and rating, Austria was our main rival in the group. Due to some problems with our GS, I decided not to risk too much, so we went CT into a game. Such fierce approach got us to a victory, but it was hard earned, since we managed to take the lead only in Q3. Afterwards Austria exhibited some very nice games, such as their tight defeat against Italy
(75180), so they are of even higher quality than I anticipated.
Finn Egghall was our best player with 31 points and 8 assists.
Sweden -
Portugal 107-120
(75179)After our win against Austria we were theoretically still in contention for the 2nd round. If we beat Portugal, us, Portugal and Italy would most likely be equal with 5 wins. But after our CT, this proved to be too much for us, and even another CT did not help us. We were very close in the first three quarters, but lost some ground in the final 12 minutes, and Portugal made a huge step towards the 2nd round (although they still have to beat Austria).
Kristian Forsbratt was our best scorer with 17 points, but again
Finn Egghall was statistically our best player, since he scored 16 points and also made 11 assists. Funny, that our entire starting five (Forsbratt, Egghall, Haggin, Dallius, Börjesson) ended a game with no more than 17 and no less than 15 points.
Sweden -
Italy 75 - 118
(75183)Due to our double CT in the previous two games, we knew there is no hope against strong Italy, and indeed the game was not very close. At the end, a 33 points defeat is even better than I predicted, but it doesn't matter much. Although low ent should hurt defense more, our FG % was less than 30%, and our 3 points were 1-25, which demonstrates the strength of Italian defense. At the end,
Kristrian Forsbratt and
Lasse Lundell were our best scorers with 15 points, but their FG were only 5-20 and 3-14. Our big duo,
Petter Börjesson and
Håkan Dallius wasted less attacks and were decent in rebounding, but to be fair, most of the desperate shoots went to our outside guys, which is why their FG% is so bad.
Sweden - Azerbeijan 126-95
(75188)We could afford to loose so much enthusiasm since all of the important games were played in the first four rounds. I hoped, that even our rock bottom ent would be enough to get two victories against the lowest ranked teams, Azerbeijan and Wales. One down, one to go. ALthough our defense was not on a decent level, we still managed to utilize our quality and got a strong win.
Sören Häggin led the scoreboard with 27 points.
So only a game against Wales remains, where I believe in another win. Currently we are 5th in the group with a 3-3 score, same as Austria. Our points difference is -29, while Austria has +45. But they still play against Portugal, who has to win, if they want to get into the 2nd round (otherwise it will be Italy). So we will see whether we will finish 4th or 5th in the group.