Skourtopoulos: “We lost our focus in the second half”

Both Thanasis Skourtopoulos and Ioannis Papapetrou spoke to the press after Greece conceded a narrow defeat to Brazil in Group F of the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China.

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Greece were well and truly dealt a cold shower by the Brazilians. Before the game began, the Episimi Agapimeni were heavy favourites to earn a second consecutive win at the World Cup, but Brazil had other ideas and stood firm to emerge victorious by a score of 79-78. Kostas Sloukas passed up the opportunity to force overtime when missing a last-gasp free throw.

Head coach Thanasis Skourtopoulos firmly believes that Greece are good enough to qualify for the next stage: “It was a bad game and result for us,” said Skourtopoulos when speaking to the media. “However, despite this loss, we believe that we are strong enough to qualify for the next stage. We lost our focus during the second half and, even though we scored almost the same amount of points, we are not playing with concentration in 1-on-1 and 2-on-2 situations - especially under the basket. A lot of their big men got a large amount of points. I think this was the decisive factor of the game.”

“We missed a lot of open shots and lay-ups,” continued the Greek coach. “It became very difficult to find the right way to the basket. Anyway, we have to get rid of the stress within the team, and we must try to win the next match so that we qualify for the second round of the competition. Yes, we’re disappointed, but all of the guys are professionals. We will talk tonight and correct our mistakes in the next game.”

Ioannis Papapetrou also shared his opinions at the press-conference: “Like our coach said, we didn’t play our best game today,” stated Papapetrou. “That especially concerns the second half, which we started with a 10-point lead. We didn’t play how we were supposed to. This can happen in a close game. At the end, some could say we were unlucky, but we didn’t make enough plays and we missed shots. They made good shots and won the game. From our side, we have to continue, and this wasn’t a knockout match. We will be more focused and aggressive for the next game.”

by Shaun Nicolaides
Image Source: gazzetta.gr

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