Estonian men's basketball team lose world cup qualifier against Czech Republic
The Estonian men's national basketball team narrowly lost to the Czech Republic on Monday in Tallinn in their FIBA World Cup Group H qualifying match.
Estonia opened the World Cup qualifying account last Friday with a wild overtime win over Slovenia, but the Czech Republic also succeeded in their first match, beating Sweden.
Forward Janari Jõesaar (Bosna ), who sat out the Slovenia match, made the 12-man lineup against the Czechs, while point guard Siim Markus-Post ( TalTech) was on the bench.
Estonia captain Kristian Kullamäe (Lietkabelis Panevėžys) said pre-match that the Czech Republic is more experienced and, crucially, taller on average than Slovenia.
Nonetheless, three months earlier, Estonia had beaten the Czechs by 14 points at the European Championships in Riga. The Czechs were however missing their NBA-experienced point guard Tomaš Satoransky in that game. Satoransky netted 16 points against Sweden.
Estonia made 10 of 15 shots in the opening quarter. Small forward Kaspar Treier (Napoli Basket) hit home all of his three long-range shots and scored 11 points in less than five minutes.
Power forward Karl Johan Lips added more points for Estonia on the first attack of the second quarter, but after that the hosts scored four points in the next four minutes and Czechia went 43:35 up, leading 43:35.
Alongside Treier, small forward Artur Konontšuk (Bursaspor Basketbol) and Markus Ilver also rose to prominence in attack. Estonia kept shooting at a good percentage and reached within one point, but in the final minute of the first half the Czechs still secured a five-point advantage.
In the first half Estonia made 18 of 28 shots, including 8/12 from three-point range, and gave out 17 assists. Treier finished the half with 14, Konontšuk 12 and Ilver 11 points; Jõesaar delivered six assists.
At the start of the third quarter, Treier hit his fourth three-pointer and Janari Jõesaar his first. Estonia cut the gap to three points, but the visiting team responded with six straight points and for the rest of the third period Estonia did not get any closer than three points.
A nine-point deficit was reduced to 81:83 at the start of the decisive quarter on the back of free-throws from forward Joonas Riismaa (Derthona Basket ) and Treier, while Jõesaar then completed a driving lay-up along with a free-throw and Estonia surged into the lead.
Four minutes before the end of the game Konontšuk hit two extremely difficult shots on two straight possessions and put Estonia 91:87 ahead, but the Czechs answered quickly with a 10:1 run which Estonia did not recover from.
Treier ended up with 26 points, Konontšuk added 20 points, and Jõesaar recorded nine points and eight assists.
Estonia shot at 50 percent (30/59), the Czechs got 19 points from Estonia turnovers, and 19 points from Estonia turnovers.
After two games, Estonia are now at one win and one loss in Group H.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
