JABAR EKSPRES – French basketball national team coach Vincent Collet praised the performance of the Latvian basketball national team who had just beaten his team dramatically with a score of 86-88 in the second game of Group H at the Indonesia Arena Gelora Bung Karno, Jakarta, Sunday (8/27).
Collet assessed that Luca Banchi’s foster children, who in this championship held the status of a debutant team, played better because they showed high determination and did not give up during play 40 minute.
“First of all, congratulations to Latvia, because we took the lead in the game. They never gave up, they fought like crazy for 40 minutes, and they put in a lot of effort, a lot of determination, and that’s why I want to congratulate Latvia,” Collet said in a post-match press conference.
Read more: Hard Work is The Key for Latvia to Beat The Superior French Team
In that match, France performed well in three quarters by always winning 33-26, 53-49, and 74-62.
However, Latvia scored 26 points in the last quarter and France were only able to score 12 points to turn the score around.
Collet was disappointed with his team’s performance, which in this case failed to show a positive response after being defeated by Canada with a score of 65-95 in the first match in Group H, last Friday (8/25).
“First, for sure this is a nightmare, after the defeat on Friday, we expected a reaction, I think we got it, a real reaction, because for three quarters, we played much better, but it wasn’t enough,” Collet said.
The 60-year-old coach also regretted the mistakes his team made in the final minute of the fourth quarter which made unnecessary fouls committed by Rudy Gobert and Evan Fournier.
From that offense, Latvia managed to score 3 points through free throws Rolands Smits (2) and Arturs Zagars (1) and made the score change 86-88 from what was originally still 86-85.
