The Latvian national team has already played one match in the tournament, beating Georgia 83:55 on Tuesday, but this is the first match for the Philippines.
The Philippine national team has participated in seven Olympic Games, but the last time it happened was in 1972. The highest achievement is the fifth place won in 1936.
The Philippines is in the 37th place in the FIBA ranking, while Latvia is in the sixth place. In the World Cup last year, the Latvians won the fifth place, while the Filipinos ended the tournament in the 24th position.
Before the match between Latvia and the Philippines, the other teams of the group, Cameroon and Montenegro, will meet at “Arena Rīga” at 3:30 p.m. On Tuesday, Brazil defeated Montenegro 81:72 in this group.
On the other hand, in the last test match of the Philippines in Sosnowiec, they lost to the Polish national team by only 80:82, not taking advantage of the opportunity to win at the end. Power forward Justin Brownlee scored 30 points. That was preceded by a 73-84 loss in Turkey, with Brownlee scoring 21 points.
Latvia and the Philippines have not met each other so far.
Head coach Luka Banki has included eight players who competed in the World Cup last year in the Latvian national team for the qualification tournament. Eight years ago, Jānis Strēlnieks, Dairis Bertāns, Jānis Timma and Mareks Mejeris took part in the Olympic qualification tournament.
The Philippines has only 11 players in the Olympic qualifiers, six of whom participated in the World Cup last year, with point guard Dwight Ramos averaging 13.2 points per game.
In Group A of the Olympic Games qualification tournament, Latvia’s opponents are Georgia and the Philippines, while Brazil, Cameroon and Montenegro are playing in the second group.
The two best teams of the group will play the two best teams from the other group (Brazil, Montenegro and Cameroon) in the semi-finals on July 6. The winners of the semi-final matches will fight for the only ticket to Paris on Sunday, July 7.
Latvian basketball players defeated the Egyptian national team 84:63 in the two test games held in “Arena Riga”, but lost to Finland 84:90 in Tampere.
Lukas Banki in Riga is assisted by coaches Jānis Gailītis and Artūrs Visockis-Rubenis.
2024-07-03 08:22:00
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