GER/KOR – Germany turns thing around after tough first half

HAMBURG (FIBA U17 World Championship) – Korea, to this date had not won a single game at the inauguaral U17 World Championship, saving its best game in the preliminaries for today's matchup against Germany, leading by as many as nine at halftime before the hosts turned things around after intermission. Korea started firing hot into the game hitting 5-of-6 three pointers in the opening quarter. Germany had to adjust to the pace of the game , which took them almost the entire first half.

After intermission it was Besnik Bekteshi (24 points) who initiated the comeback, attacking the rim at any opportunity given. After he hit a contested three pointer Bekteshi also dished out a long pass to Paul Albrecht for the tie (43-43, 26min). Little later itwas Krumbeck, nailing a triple for the lead (46:45, 27min). Korea did not have enough left in the tank to launch a comeback on their own. With the fifth loss in five games under their belts the Asian team is to set up for the qualification round, starting friday.

Quotes:

Kim Kijong, Korean assistant coach: “In the second quarter we played very well, but in the third quarter Germany took over the game and pushed on to win. We had a lot of injured players, so which is not good for the fit players, who have to play much more. We had not prepared our physical condition very well, which we have to take some responsibility for.”

Frank Menz, Germany head coach: “Korea played much better than we expected them to. They made almost every shot in the first minutes. Although we were behind, in the locker room we knew they could not keep shooting as good as they had done.”

Kim Hyeongjun, Korea number 12: “Our defense was not good today and our concentration dropped towards the end of the game, we are sorry.”

Julius Wolf, Germany number 11: “We knew that they could be a hard opponent. We had trouble keeping their number 12 under control in the first half but we defended better against him in the second half. We now have our three wins and can look forward to a quarter-final.”

FIBA / JB