Photo: Feb.es
Spain leaned on their suffocating defense to run away with a dominating 89-53 victory over hapless Poland in the fifth day of the EuroBasket Men 2013 on Sunday night in Slovenia.
The defending EuroBasket champions dominated from the get go, quickly erecting an 8-0 lead and ended the opening period with a commanding 28-5 lead. The Spanish squad continued to dominate in the second period, limiting Poland to just 8 points compared to their 24-point output as a team.
Poland played better as a team after the half-time break, but Spain managed to control the tempo of the match with their huge lead en route to the blowout victory, which put them in a better position heading into the second round of the competition.
“We kept playing our game because we still need to grow as a team and improve on things we can improve on,” said Spain forward Alex Mumbru after the game. “I think that with the exception of the fourth quarter we played great defense. Defending well is important to us so that we feel comfortable on offense.”
NBA players Marc Gasol and Ricky Rubio led their team’s offensive surge with 15 points apiece, while Rudy Fernandez added 13 points. Xavier Rey finished with 12 points, while Rudy Fernandez added 13 points for Spain, which shot 52.4 percent from the field.
On the other hand, Przemslaw Zamojski had 11 points on 4-for-6 shooting, while Maciej Lampe added 10 points and two boards for Poland, which shot just 33 percent from the field as a team.
Poland dropped to 0-4 and will not advance to the second round of competition.
Spain, on the other hand, improved to 3-1 and are locked with Slovenia and Croatia on top of Group C. In case of a tie after the last day of action, Spain will take the second spot due to a better quotient, followed by Slovenia.
With the marks of top Spanish National teams and figures such as Rafael Nadal who just won the Wimbledon after a 44 year drought for Spanish Players and the Spanish Soccer team who also won the Euro2008 after not winning in the 40s. The national teams for Spain both women and men are hoping to follow in those footsteps in Pekin during the Olympic Summer Basketball Games!