Basketball fever hits Poland

(2009-09-11) Tournament hosts Poland advanced to the next stage of EuroBasket 2009 following some impressive performances in the preliminary stages.

The competition – Europe’s second biggest sports event – opened on Monday with the Poles blitzing the Bulgarian’s 90:78. ‘They annihilated us’, claimed Pinhas Gershon, Bulgaria’s shell-shocked coach.

Better was to follow, and the next day Poland scored a historic 86-75 victory over Lithuania, one of the pre-tournament favourites. ‘We were terrible,’ grumbled Lithuanian gaffer Ramunas Butautas, ‘we had no offence, no defence, no game’.

The Poles had soared into a 14-2 lead within four minutes, and while the Lithuanians managed to regroup later they hadn’t prepared for Michal Ignierski to bang in a trio of three-pointers as the game reached its climax.

The host nation though failed to top the group, and even 21 points from NBA star Marcin Gortat weren’t enough to stop the Poles being sucker punched 87-69 in the final group game by Turkey.

The hosts now face Serbia, Slovenia and Spain in the next stage.

Basketball fever hits Poland

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