Datasheet:
North Macedonia (65): Nikolov (7), Mekic (9), Robev (9), Krstevski (2) and Simic (18) –quinteto initials–; Stojanovski (4), Stajic (2), Efremovski (-), Maslinko (2), Nikolovski (2), Magdevski (-), Robev, Wiley (10).
Spain (94): Colom (2), Fernández (12), López-Aróstegui (15), Díez (8) and Guerra (5) –initial quintet–; Sastre (-), Brizuela (10), Pérez (8), Díaz (2), Parra (9), Pradilla (6), Sima (17).
Partial: 14-21, 16-20, 17-29, 18-24.
Referees: Jasevicius, Deman and Beliakov. Simic removed.
Pavilion: Jane Sandanski.
The Spanish men’s basketball team has started with a landslide victory against North Macedonia (65-94) its way to the 2023 Basketball World Cup in the first qualifying window that saw the debut of several players in the debut of Sergio Scariolo.
[Aquí puedes ver de nuevo el Macedonia del Norte – España]
Xabi López Arostegui, Quino Colom, Dani Diez, Jaime Fernánez and Fran Guerra was the quintet chosen by Sergio Scariolo to open the match at the Jane Sandanski Sports Center, which began with a minute of silence as a sign of mourning for the 45 killed in an accident traffic in Bulgaria when they were returning to Skopje from Istanbul.
The Spanish team started somewhat cold, which, however, was placed with a six-point lead (7-13) just over four minutes from the end of the first quarter with a choral scoring exercise by a quintet in which they already they all added up, especially, thanks to the speed of the outside game.
The meeting, beyond the initial dominance in the scoreboard of ‘La Familia’ was the debut de Yankuba Sima, the team’s top scorer with 15 points -average 6.8 points per game in the ACB League- to help close the first quarter with victory (14-21).
Scariolo gives minutes to all those summoned
A 2 + 1 from Girona extended the Spanish advantage to ten points (14-24) at the start of the second act in which Spain continued with high percentages of success in two-point shots (61%), but very unfortunate in terms of to the triples (11%) while Jacob Wiley was in charge of keeping his team in the game with eight points scored at the end of the break that ended with 41-30 for Spain with four points from the debutante Jaime Pradilla.
The inside game of the Spanish team began to work after the break to step on the accelerator and achieve the maximum difference of the game +18 (30-48) with a triple shot from Xabi López Arostegui and Sergio Scariolo dosed his players thinking about the game next Monday in Jaén against Georgia giving minutes on the track to all those called up.
The third quarter showed the Spanish superiority and the scoreboard shot up in favor of ‘La Familia’ to 47-70 with a noticeable improvement in the success from the triple while the local team pulled on some of Adam Mekic’s pride to narrow a difference which remained at 29 points (65-94).
Monday will be another story against Georgia in Jaén between the two teams that will compete for the leadership of the group after the victory of the Georgians against Ukraine 88-83.
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