Brown shines in EuroBasket opener, Spain take care of business

TBILISI (Georgia) - The new-look Spain national team became the first team to get a win at the FIBA EuroBasket 2022 as they blazed past Bulgaria in a convincing 114-87 win.

Seven Spanish players reached double digits in points, with Spain getting to 100 almost six minutes before the end of the game.

Turning point: The Bulgarians were attempting to hang around in the first half, but the second quarter proved to be the decisive part of the game. Spain found good looks to make it a 10-3 run and managed to keep the opponents at arm's length for the rest of the game.

TCL Player of the Game: Lorenzo Brown played in his first ever EuroBasket game and notched 17 points, 5 assists and 3 steals. The guard's fine performance was based on 6-for-10 shooting from the field.

Stats don't lie: Spain looked in sync on offense as each member of the team worked for the common good. It allowed all but one member of La Familia get at least one assist.

Bottom line: Spain can begin to plan for Saturday's game against the hosts Georgia which will be backed by the loyal locals. Meanwhile, self-proclaimed underdogs Bulgaria live to fight another day and will look to upset Turkey next.

They said: "We shared the ball really well and found the open man. And then, of course, when you shoot with space and time the percentages get up. We did that pretty consistently. That's something I liked about the game. But we definitely got to be better on a couple of defensive areas." - Spain coach Sergio Scariolo

"It's my first time playing on a big stage like this. Everybody back home is proud of me and the things I'm doing. I made sure they have the right information to watch the game." - Lorenzo Brown, Spain

"I don't have much to say with 114 points allowed. We didn't play defense, we gave them a lot of second chance points. They dominated in the paint. We know that they have big bodies and quality players, but we didn't fight a lot." - Sasha Vezenkov, Bulgaria

"We could have played better, especially on defense. We were bad on defense the whole game and had problems with rebounds. Maybe we had too much respect for the Spanish team." - Bulgaria coach Rosen Barchovski

FIBA