Finland lost its opening match of the European Championship qualifier in Serbia.
Aleksander Madsen, who fought hard, had to leave the court due to five faults in the middle of the final set. Jenni Gästgivar
For Susijeng, the European Championship qualification for basketball started with an away trip to Belgrade.
In the end, Serbia, the overwhelming favorite to win the qualifying group, ran to a 77–61 victory.
However, the loss has no meaning for Finland, because it has already secured its place in the EC final tournament as one of the four host countries.
The head coach Lassi Tuovi would have preferred to organize the qualifying groups so that all four (Finland, Cyprus, Poland and Latvia) would have formed their own quartet, in which case their matches would not have confused the order of the teams still aiming for a place in the competition.
However, the international basketball association Fiba did not agree to it, so Finland will play in the qualifying G group together with Serbia, Denmark and Georgia.
The Aleksandar Nikolić Arena in Belgrade saw an exciting battle, which Susijengi led even after the first period (20–17) and in the third period with nine points at their best (49–39).
Susigengi had to play without its members playing in the USA. Because of that Daniel Dolenc and Remu Raitanen played a big role in Tuov’s gaming.
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Sasu Salin only succeeded in two of his seven three-point attempts. Jenni Gästgivar
Finland lost its grip on surprise at the end of the third period, which Serbia took 10–0, and jumped out to a seven-point lead.
Tuovi bravely tried different compositions in the match, but Luukas Vaara and Perttu Blomgren came onto the floor only when there was only a good minute left in the game.
In the end, the recycling of ten players became too heavy in the end, and Serbia ran away to a 15-point victory in the final period.
The most effective in Finland were Mikael Jantunen (11 points), Edon Maxhuni (10) and Elias Valtonen (10 points and nine rebounds).
It was remarkable that Susijeng’s traditional weapon, the three-point shots, did not work at all on Friday. The team had only seven successes from behind the line out of no less than 30 attempts (23.3%).
Susijeng’s EC qualification continues already on Monday, when it meets Denmark in Espoo. The Jews opened the group by grabbing a valuable 75-69 victory over Georgia.