Sasu Salin dropped seven out of three and led by 25 points from Finland’s reigning champion. Finland played without Petteri Kopo, who has a corona infection.
The Finnish men’s basketball team took a handsome victory in the World Cup qualifiers on Friday night. The Susijengi defeated the reigning European champion Slovenia with ten points, 86-76.
The teams will meet again in a few days.
– We played a really good game and took a win from a really good basketball country. Every player was ready today. Miro (Little) came to play the minutes he got. Also Ilari Seppälä and Jammu Wilson played really important moments, praised 25 points thrown Sasu Salin.
The hall was one successful threesome away Petri Virtasen on the record for one match of the men’s national team in the name of eight successful threes.
However, in the championships or their qualifiers, Salin shares the record of three throws together with Virtanen, Kari-Pekka Klingan, Jukka Matisen and Markku Larkion with.
The national team received bad news the day before the game. Finland’s top game leaders Petteri Koponen and Edon Maxhuni were removed from the assembly due to coronavirus infections. The duo are in quarantine for five days, so they won’t be able to play in Monday’s away game in Slovenia either.
But the misfortune of another is the possibility of another. Miro Little, 17, came on the field in the second quarter and made his men’s national team debut as the youngest Finnish basketball player of this millennium.
Little’s sportiness and physicality brought important additional elements to Finland’s rear men. The backman of the HBA-Märsky playing in the Divar collected six basket passes, three rebounds and two exploits in just over 12 minutes of play.
Head coach Henrik Dettmann was proud when Susijeng managed to stop Slovenia ‘s best championship game at the reigning European champion and the Tokyo Olympics.
– The young guard of Finland carried the team nicely. Miro Little’s defensive head was what made the team believe in itself. Having a kit of that level on the ball makes it really difficult for your opponent to play. Miro leaves to play boldly from the basket, he didn’t even think it could go wrong somehow, Dettmann smiled.
How can Finland progress to the 2023 World Cup?
Finland’s balance after the first three World Cup qualifiers is two wins and one loss.
The wolf in the middle of the C-block has a solid grip on the place of the World Cup extension block, where the top three of the first blocks reach. Undefeated Croatia have lost their first three games and seem to be in the starting block at this point.
With these prospects, Sweden, Finland and Slovenia are on their way to following the top three in Group D (Israel, Germany and Estonia) to the six-team World Cup qualifier, with the top three reaching the 2023 World Cup.
The mutual results of the first series will be included in the continuation block, so the fights will be of great importance for a possible World Cup dream.
The World Basketball Championships will be played from 1 to 17 September 2023. The Games will be held in Asia, when, for the first time, the World Cup will be hosted by more than one country.
The World Cup is played in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia. Spain, which won the 2019 tournament, will take part in the tournament as the reigning world champion.