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Last chance for Slovakia, perhaps for the Swedish team as well

Both teams started the qualifications with two defeats. Sweden performed better, but not so well as to book this under an easy job

The Slovak team entered the qualifications for the Eurobasket very poorly and today is their last chance to keep their hopes of getting to the Eurobasket alive. Their score is currently 0-2, meaning one more defeat would bury their hopes. They dropped a 16 point lead against Romania in the last round, losing -12 in the end, while they had no chance whatsoever in Latvia on Wednesday.

The Baltic team played much better from the very start and soon put together a 13-0 series which gave them a 9 point lead at the end of the first quarter. They continued to dominate in the second, taking off to +23 points by halftime, and 30+ in the third quarter. They relaxed a bit after that, which the Slovak team used to make the score look a bit prettier.

- We are missing seven players due to injuries and other issues. Most of the players in the national team play in the Slovak league, and no Slovak team plays in the European competitions... However, I'm pleased with the way we played the second half. If we manage to play that way in the coming matches, we might be able to surprise someone, especially at home- said selector Milan Černicky.

His team took 12 less rebounds, had 17 turnovers and just 9 free throws. The only noteworthy performance was that of center Sedmak, who scored 17 points and added  rebounds.

The Slovakian camp reported that they once again cannot count on power forward Batka or point guard Tot, who have not recovered sufficiently to be able to aid the team.

- I think we have a shot at victory today. The Swedish team have quality, but they are not so good that we cannot beat them at home. We are aware that we must win today if we are to keep any chance of advancement alive. If we lose, it's all over. This is the most important match of our male basketball in this season and the next one- pointed our assistant coach Duriš.

The Slovak team may have many absent players, but so does the Swedish. The Scandinavian team opened the qualifications with two defeats, so they are in a similar situation. A defeat against Latvia was expected, but the one against Romania on Wednesday was not. In a very close match it came as no surprise that extra time had to decide the winner. The teams took the lead from each other 16 times, the score was tied six times and no team had more than a 6 point lead in regular time.

With a little over ten seconds to go the Romanians made some free throws and reduced the lead to 64-65. After a quick foul Sweden made only one free throw and countered with another foul. Romania made both and tied the score, which led them to extra time as the Swedes missed a buzzer-beater. Romanians played much better in extra time and took off to a 7 point lead, which was enough to win points although the Swedes could have still made things more complicated.

-We lost because we missed some open shots in extra time. Regardless of all that, we need to keep fighting. We have a very young team, and we need to learn from this- said selector Vedran Bosnić.

Pahlmblad was the best on the Swedish team, with 17 points (6/17 shooting), with Person adding 14. The Swedish centers played very poorly, and they did not shoot much better either, with 8/30 for three points (26,7 percent).

-We have to keep fighting and playing with equal intensity on defense, while looking for better solutions on offense. If we play with the right focus and intensity and make the right decisions, we can certainly win today... Slovakia have a team on par with us, and we cannot take them lightly- pointed our Bosnić, adding tat they looked OK on court in both games when they played defense well.

An injury eliminated power forward Maraker, and makes guard Borg's appearance uncertain. The decision whether he will be able to play will be made at the final practice session.