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German basketball players become the first finalists of the European Championship in Riga

Diena.lv

Latvia

Friday, September 12


For the winners, Dennis Schroeder scored 26 points, 12 assists, five rebounds and five fouls, Franz Wagner - 22 points and five rebounds, Tristan da Silva scored 13 points, and Daniel Theis and Isaac Bonga scored ten points each, also collecting 11 and five rebounds respectively.

For the Finns, Olivier Nkamuai had 21 points and nine rebounds, Lauri Markkanen had 16 points and eight rebounds, while Mika Mūrinen and Mikael Jantunen each scored 12 points, with the latter also having six rebounds.

The German team made only seven mistakes, while the Finns made 15 mistakes.

Mikael Jantunen started the match with an accurate half-court shot, but Daniel Theiss tied the game with a shot from below the basket - 2:2.

The Finns fared better in the first half of the quarter, as they achieved their largest lead of the game - 14:6 - after a three-pointer by Jacob Grandison.

Germany responded with a 10-0 run, taking a 21-18 lead after a two-pointer by Isaac Bonga, and a 29-21 lead after a three-pointer by Johannes Thiemann.

The Germans started the second quarter with an 8:0 run, with Franz Wagner scoring six of the points and taking a 38:26 lead, and after Wagner's long shot - 46:28.

At the beginning of the third quarter, the Finnish team closed the gap below ten points for the first time since the beginning of the second quarter, making it 52:61 after a long shot by Lauri Markkanen, but Germany responded with long shots by Bonga, Dennis Schröder and Andreas Obst - 70:52.

In the final quarter, the Finns had an 11-point lead, closing the gap to 71:77 after a long-range shot by Edon Majjuni, but they couldn't get any closer. At the end of the quarter, the German team scored eight points in a row and prevented the Finns from reducing the lead below ten points again.

Finland started the championship at home in Tampere with a victory over Sweden, as well as defeating Great Britain and Montenegro, but only lost to Lithuania 78:81 and conceded the superiority of world champion Germany. In the round of 16, the Finns provided one of the biggest surprises of the tournament, defeating Serbia 92:86, and in the quarter-finals they defeated Georgia 93:79.

Germany has won all eight games in the championship so far, defeating Portugal 85:58 in the round of 16 and Slovenia 99:91 in the quarter-finals.

Germany triumphed at the European Championship on home soil in 1993, while Finland's previous best finish was sixth place at home in 1967.

In the second semi-final, Greece will face Turkey on Friday at 9 p.m. at the Xiaomi Arena. The games will be broadcast live on TV6.

The final and the third place match will take place on Sunday.

The Latvian national team finished the European Championship in 12th place after losing in the round of 16.

The European Championship final tournament featured 24 teams divided into four groups in Riga, Tampere, Katowice and Limassol. The top four teams from each group qualified for the play-off tournament in Riga, where the medal winners will be determined on Sunday.

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