By Cesare Milanti/ info@eurohoops.net
Riga, Latvia – Finland advanced to the Semifinals for the first time in the country’s history but fell to Germany in Xiaomi Arena on Friday, and thus was moved to the bronze-medal game of EuroBasket 2025.
With Lauri Markkanen struggling for large stretches, Olivier Nkamhoua emerged as the best offensive player for the team coached by Lassi Tuovi. His 21 points behind 6/8 field goals neared a new career high, but were not enough for a win.
“First I have to sit with this one, learn from this one and spend tonight understanding what happened and then as the night changes into tomorrow we prepare for the next game and everything focus-wise and mentality-wise goes into whoever our next opponent is as we don’t even know who that is yet,” he switched to facing the losing side of the second Semifinal between Greece and Turkiye, “When we find out we start game planning and we have a day to prepare.”
“Today was, but then Sunday will be Finnish basketball history’s biggest game, so we have an amazing opportunity to walk out of here with our heads held up high,” the 25-year-old forward/center added on the third-place game.
Scoring eight of his points in the second period prevented an unattainable distance for the Wolfpack. The deficit was reduced from 19 to six points in the third quarter, but to no avail, with Germany back in a safe lead in the fourth quarter.
“Every fiber of my being believed that we could win today, and I believe in my teammates. I believe in what we’ve built and what we’ve done this whole tournament, and I believe that we showed that we could win today. We just weren’t able to do that play at that level for 40 minutes, and they were,” commented Nkamhoua.
With club experience in Germany, the native of Helsinki also shared his view on the team guided by interim head coach Alan Ibrahimagic.
“Germany is a very good basketball country, but I honestly feel that their national team plays a little bit of a different brand of basketball very much faster than what I saw in Germany,” he said, “Yes, certain players that I was able to see and certain matchups that I was able to already have competed against definitely helped.”
Heading to the bronze-medal fixture of the tournament on Sunday, Nkamhoua has tallied 10.3 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 0.9 blocks, and 0.5 steals per contest over eight appearances between Tampere and Riga.
Photo Credit: FIBA