The Bahamas, who won Susijengi on Tuesday, were also better than Poland in the Olympic basketball qualifiers in Valencia.
The Bahamas, who sealed their place in the semifinals in the Valencia group, beat Poland 90-81 (50-38) in the men’s basketball Olympic qualifier on Wednesday.
The end result was good for Finland, which had lost to the Bahamas on Tuesday by 11 points in chapters 85–96. In the evening game starting at 21:30 on Thursday, a win against Poland is enough for Susijeng to reach the next round in Valencia, i.e. the semi-finals.
The Bahamas showed the locker room to Poland right from the start when its NBA duo Buddy Hield – Deadre Ayton quickly led the country to a 19–11 lead. At halftime, the Bahamas lead was 12 points and before the final period it was 14 points.
The Bahamas’ best scorers against Poland were also the Baylor university player who disciplined Finland, only 18 years old Valdez Edgecombe Jr (21/6), center Ayton (18/9), Hield (17/6/10s) and Eric Gordon (12/1/5s).
Young basketball sensation Edgecombe Jr. tried to put Poland in the match by Igor Milicic to “postage stamp”.
Poland’s power trio is the 215-centimeter center of Panathinaikos Alexander Balcerowski 4/22 by the San Antonio Spurs Jeremy Sochan 16/10 and small winger for Serbian Partizan Mateusz Ponitka 13/7/4s.
New Zealand shocked Croatia
In the Olympic qualifiers, there was a big bang in Piraeus, Greece, where New Zealand, who had lost even to Susijeng in a stunning match, surprised Croatia 90–86.
Croatia still led the match 86–79 with 3.12 left in the match. However, the final moments were recorded for New Zealand 11–0.
The winners’ best scorers had scored 21 points Corey Webster and 18 sunk Shea Ili. They recovered from Croatia Ivica Zubac (29/16), Dario Saric (19/8/5s) and Mario Hezonja (16/9/6s).
Just a day earlier, Croatia had been beaten Luka Doncic led by Slovenia with as many as sixteen points 108–92.
Slovenia and star player Doncic are in a tight spot, because a high-quality team needs to beat New Zealand by 11 points on Thursday in order to definitely go ahead with a goal difference, if all three countries end up with one win in the first group.
Croatia (goal difference +12) can no longer drop out of the top two in the group, i.e. from the group semi-finals.
In the Olympic qualifying tournament played in Riga, the Philippines surprised the host country Latvia 89-80.
36 years old Justin Brownlee collected for the winners the powers 26/9/9s. Latvia’s best scorer was Rodions Kurucs 18/7.
However, Latvia will advance from the first group, because it had previously defeated Georgia by as many as 28 points, 83–55.