The Finnish women’s national basketball team beat Bulgaria in the EC qualifying match in Helsinki. Finland’s lead was up to 31 points at its best.
Joel Sippola,
Roope Visuri
18:51•Updated 19:14
The Finnish women’s national basketball team got their first win of the year in a thriller-like match. Finland beat Bulgaria 85–72 in the EC qualifying match in Helsinki.
The previous victory was against Bulgaria exactly one year ago. At that time, Finland went to get the qualifying points from Bulgaria with a score of 75–65.
Finland played like in a frenzy during the first two quarters. Before the break, the home team had a tasty 31-point lead, 59–28. The star player of the team Awak Kuier, Sara Bejedi and Lotta-Maj Lahtinen equally shared responsibility for the results.
However, the match turned out to be a thriller in the end. After the break, the game was out of Bulgaria’s hands for a long time and the lead narrowed to five points at best.
However, the star player Kuier stepped up by throwing an important three-pointer four and a half minutes before the end of the match. With the throw, Finland increased the lead to eight points after a difficult phase.
– The grip slipped a little after halftime, but luckily we got it done at the end, team captain Linda-Lotta Lehtoranta your joy
Kuier sank all five of his three-point attempts. He was the best player of the match scoring 30 points.
Halonen is there
The president was watching the Finnish match Tarja Halonen her husband Pentti Arajärvi with. Basketball is Halonen’s favorite sport.
Finland suffered a defeat on Thursday against Slovenia. According to Lehtoranta, playing rebounds improved it now.
Only one team from each group will go directly to the next round. In addition, the four best teams from the second group go to the games.
Finland has won two matches in the group. Finland will still play two EC qualifying group matches in February. It will visit Hungary and Slovenia.
– Let’s rest a bit. Let’s try to get two wins, Lehtoranta stated.