By Nikos Varlas / varlas@eurohoops.net
France got a comfortable 84-70 win in the end against a respectable Latvian team, in the second quarterfinal of the day in Lille.
France came into this quarterfinal undefeated in the group stage – they got a 25-point win over a strong Israeli team to secure the top spot in Group A – and following an emphatic 23-point victory over Turkey in the Round of 16. Bagatskis’s team got a surprise win over Slovenia to get into the quarterfinal after 3 wins and 2 losses in the group stage.
In addition to this, considering that France are the defending champions and the hosts, that they have the best defense in the competition and are fourth in scoring, that the Latvians squeezed through to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2001, and that their previous three EuroBasket encounters were all won by Les Bleus, it was always going to be a long shot for the visitors.
The Latvians seemed determined from the outset not to be a pushover for the French and got a strong start to the game, closing out the first quarter with a surprising 4-point lead. However, Parker got going late in the second period with 9 consecutive points to give his team a 2-point lead, closing out the half 40-38. As the game resumed, the home team extended their lead to 11 before the end of the third and from that point, they simply took off, never looking back.
Tony Parker was the top scorer for Vincent Collet’s team, racking up 18 points, 1 rebound and 6 assists. Team captain Boris Diaw was once again the other cornerstone of the French squad with 14 points and 3 boards and 1 assist. Nando De Colo had an excellent game, scoring 11 points, collecting 7 rebounds and dishing 5 assists. Rudy Gobert helped out with 13 points and 6 rebounds and Joffrey Lauvergne got another 10, plus 7 rebounds and 1 assist.
“It was a tough start as we were expecting,” Diaw said. “They are a great team which is why they are in the quarterfinals. We had a tough time against them and their unusual style in the first half. We switched a lot against them. We’re happy that it worked and we were able to win the game in the second half.”
For Latvia, Kristaps Janicenoks (1 rebound, 1 assist) got the most with 16 points, Janis Strelnieks tallied 14 points, 3 boards and 7 assists, and Dairis Bertans was close behind with 12 points, 1 rebound and 3 assists. Rolands Freimanis had a decent game, scoring 9 points and grabbing 8 rebounds, and Martins Meiers provided some much needed support, contributing 7 points, 4 boards and 1 assist.
“We knew who we were playing against,” Bagatskis commented after the game, “and what the atmosphere would be like. We were ready for that. We respected them and they fought from the beginning. The end of the second quarter was bad for us when (Tony) Parker scored nine points in a row. From the beginning of the third quarter we were off for about five minutes. We were not ready for a very hard game. We missed a couple of good shots. We let the French score easy points, but we tried to do our best in the end.”