Finland beat Poland by one point and gets to continue the Olympic qualifying tournament in Spain.
4.7. 23:48•Updated 4.7. 23:49
The Finnish men’s national basketball team continues to qualify for the Paris Olympics after defeating Poland with 89–88 points. Poland led the match at its best in the third period with 15 points and at the beginning of the final period with 14 points. However, Finland rose to fight for victory in the closing period.
Edon Maxhuni threw Finland into the lead for the first time in the last period with a three-point shot that came at the end of a really confused attack a minute and a half before the end. That was Maxhun’s only successful three-pointer in the match.
Polish Alexander Dziewa still took his team into the lead, but with 18 seconds to go Alexander Madsen threw the final scores from the free throw line.
The game ended with Finland’s successful defense, when by AJ Slaughter the two-point jump shot hit the irons.
Finland needed a win over Poland for the next place after losing the opening game to the Bahamas. He returned to Susijeng after being sidelined from the Bahamas game due to injury Sasu Salin. Captain Salin was in his element in the match, looking for numerous mistakes and loose balls for Poland on the defensive end. On that side, Salin scored 11 points and gave six assists leading to baskets.
Mikael Jantunen dominated the field, scoring 20 points and being Finland’s best scorer.. We saw an almost perfect throwing game from Jantuse. He missed just one of his seven shots in the game.
Madsen, another player with a big head, scored no less than 18 points, sinking all six of his shots. Madsen also threw in all threes (3/3).
Before the final episode, the Polish star trio Jeremy Sochan, AJ Slaughter and Mateus Ponitzka were able to frolic, but in the end Poland was not as effective in their throws.
Finland continues to fight for an Olympic place in the semifinals of the qualifying tournament against the host Spain on Saturday. The Bahamas and Lebanon will meet in the second semi-final.
Only the winner of the qualifying tournament advances to the Olympics.
We’ll tell you more shortly.