EM thriller ends successfully
DBB women cheer after catching up and trembling final
06/18/2023, 3:13 p.m
The German national basketball team takes an important step towards the quarter-finals at the women’s European Championship. The last preliminary round game is a thriller: The DBB team manages to catch up, the decision is only made with the final siren.
The German basketball players won their last preliminary round game at the European Championships against Great Britain 62:61 (29:38) and are playing in qualifying for the quarterfinals as second in group C against third in season D. It is not yet clear who it will be against will go on Tuesday. After the opening defeat against France (50:58), the victory on Friday over hosts Slovenia (66:62) made it clear even before the group final that the German team had reached the second round. On the third day of the game, the Brits went head-to-head for second place.
National coach Lisa Thomaidis had to do without Ama Degbeon, who left the preliminary round venue Ljubljana/Slovenia for personal reasons. According to the German Basketball Federation (DBB), the 27-year-old is expected to return to the team on Monday.
The DBB team initially had problems with rebounding, the Brits took advantage of this advantage and pulled away slightly before the break. In the strong third quarter (18:6), the Thomaidis protégés turned the game, the decision was made in the final seconds. The Brits missed two free throws and missed the chance to win the last time they had possession. The best thrower of the DBB team, which is taking part in a EuroBasket for the first time in twelve years, was Leonie Fiebich with 13 points. For the first time since 1997, the German women have won two games in a row at a European Championship.
The EM is about “getting out of the group first. We haven’t set any other goals yet,” said top scorer Fiebich, who decided not to move to the WNBA, the largest women’s basketball league in the world, for the EM , explained before the start of the tournament. The DBB team is “complete underdog”, but has “a lot of weapons in the team that probably nobody in Europe really knows yet. We will really show what we can do.”