On Saturday night, the National Team of Kosovo was defeated by Ukraine 70:63 (17:17, 17:15, 18:20, 11:18), in Minatori hall, in Mitrovica, before 2000 spectators, in round 2 of Eurobakst 2017 qualifiers. Kosovo Basketball Federation (KBF) did a great job with organizing the game and the atmosphere created before and during the match was at the desired level.
Kosovo started good and the first points were scored by Barcelona's star, Justin Doellman. Ukrainians on the other were quick to respond and thus an equal war ran until the end of the first quarter, which ended 17:17. Even in the second quarter both teams continued with the same tempo and the teams ended the first half with the result 34:32. Kosovo played good until the last five minutes of the game but Ukraine with their experience and great defense managed to win the game. The most efficient player for the National Team of Kosovo was Justin Doellman with 20 points, whereas for the NT of Ukraine the most efficient player was Maksym Korniienko.
Coach and player statements after Kosovo – Ukraine match:
Arben Krasniqi, selector of Kosovo:
This is a totally different approach compared to how we approached the game in Slovenia and today we put on a great performance versus e really good opponent. We lost in the last minute and there are many reasons and variables to analyze after the game. However, for me it is very encouraging that we played in a true team spirit and players did their best to stick to pre game strategy.
This is a time in which all of us are learning, since we are playing in this level for the first time, and I am looking forward to the next four games and see if we can reach first victory.
Yll Kacaniku – basketball player of Kosovo NT
We played a good game today and a much better one than in Slovenia. We played very good team game for 35 minutes and perhaps we should just analyze the last five minutes and realize our mistakes. I think we proved that we can play at this level and I am sure that in the upcoming matches, starting from the match in Sofia, we will play much better and get better results.
Fisnik Rugova - basketball player of Kosovo NT
This was e very strong game, we played good, but unfortunately we lost. We have to play better in the upcoming games.
Evgeni Murzin – head coach Ukraine
It was really tough game. We knew it was Kosovo’s first game at home in this qualifying campaign. We knew Doellman and Berisha are the leaders of this team and we expected to have tough time against those two players in particular. At times we played good defense and at times we did not and especially against Doellaman, we had difficulties. I think our biggest advantage was our game under the basket and key of the game proved to be of better defense that we played in last quarter.
Maxim Kornilienko – basketball player of Ukraine NT
Very good game for us but for Kosovo as well. We won the game because we got more rebounds and we played better defense in the last minutes
It should be noted that on Wednesday, Kosovo will play against Bulgarian, in Sofia.