22.06.2011

It’s Basko Time For Latvia

Turning Point: Poland cut the deficit 48-45 midway through the fourth quarter before Latvia´s Kristine Karklina and Gunta Basko buried consecutive three-pointers for a 54-48 lead with less than five minutes to go.

Game Heroes: Latvia captain Gunta Basko led all scorers with 19 points on six-for-11 (55%) shooting while team-mate Zane Tamane contributed with three points, pulled down 13 of her team´s 39 rebounds, came up with three steals and blocked two shots.

Stats Don't Lie: Latvia out-rebounded Poland 39-38. Latvia were one-for-five (20%) from three-point range at half-time and finished five-for-13 (38%) while Poland were six-for-24 (25%) shooting from behind the arc. Latvia got 15 points off Poland´s 14 turnovers.

Polish basketball dreams of another EuroBasket Women championship as the host nation faded a little more on Wednesday with Latvia the latest side to defeat them.

Winners when they staged the event in 1999, Poland lost for the third time in four games as they crashed to a 62-53 defeat to the Latvians.

Trailing by as many as eight points in the first half, the Latvians showed for the third time in this tournament they know now to play from behind in Katowice's Spodek Arena.

If Elina Babkina was Latvia's star in the overtime upset of France on Sunday when she scored 26 points, on Wednesday it was Latvia captain Gunta Basko and Kristine Karklina to spark the Baltic side.

Basko connected on three of her five shots from long range and had 19 points and Karklina provided steel off the bench at the playmaker position and finished with five points, six rebounds, two assists and two steals.

With Poland behind 48-45 and with 5:43 remaining, the pair hit them with back-to-back three-point daggers.

Latvia ran the shot-clock down and fed Karklina in the left corner, where she released her shot in front of the Polish bench just in time and took the Latvia lead to 51-45.

On their next trip down the floor, Basko uncorked a three from the right wing and drilled it to take the lead to 54-45.

Poland, who shot just 29% (19 of 65) from the floor, never threatened again.

They finished just seven of 37 from the floor in the second half.

At half-time, Poland had a 33-29 advantage but when play resumed, Latvia took command.

Ieva Kublina buried a three-ball and Babkina and Basko hit shots for a 36-33 lead to force Poland coach Dariusz Maciejewski to call a timeout.

Ewelina Kobryn scored with a jumper in the lane, but Kublina made a lay-up and Basko followed with one of her three-pointers.

Poland's defense kept them in the game, forcing Latvia to turn the ball over 18 times.

But they didn't capitalize off the miscues the way the Latvians did.

George Dikeoulakos' team finished with 15 points off turnovers and Poland scored just five.

Latvia got another battling performance from Zane Tamane, the tournament's leading rebounder.

She had a game-high 13 rebounds, three steals and two blocked shots to go with her three points.

Tamane attempted just three shots.

 

22.06.2011

Quotes Poland vs. Latvia

Latvia Head Coach George Dikeoulakos:
"Many tactical things happened in this game. I have faced (Poland coach ) Dariuz (Maciejewski) many times and it is always a chess game. The games we win, we do so starting on defense. What I say to my players is that our defense has to be action not reaction. I thought in the second half it was like this. I am very happy with my young team becase this win has placed us in a good position to go to the next round."

Latvia Center Ieva Kublina:
"I´m glad we came out concentrated. We had downfalls during the game but the important thing is that we kept it together and we had a strong finish to win the game."

Poland Head Coach Dariusz Maciejewski:
"Congratulations to Latvia. My team fought but fighting is not enough to win a game. We lacked discipline on offense. We do not have the individual quality to help us win games so we depend on team play. But we are lacking certain elements and like this is not possible to win games. I did think we did a good job on defense and for that I give my team high marks but our offense was not good."

Poland Forward Elzbieta Mowlik:
"We are sorry for this loss. All I can say is that we will try to play hard, give our all in our remaining games for the rest of the tournament. We want to do that for our fans, who were great today."