Tbilisi International Tournament in basketball, which is hosted at Sports Palace is to end.
After beating Belarusians in the first round, this time Georgian team defeated Estonia 84:71 and as a result became leader. Igor Kokoskov head coach of Georgian national basketball team did not give chance of playing to Richard Matiashvili, Akaki Dvalishvili and Beka Bekauri debutant players in Georgian team in the first as well as in the second round match and according to it, it can conclude that he will chose for European championship only one of them, because he must have 12 players in staff.
It goes without saying that nothing is excluded, but according to the matches between Belarus and Estonia, 11 players from 12 are known. Start five is the following: Tsintsadze, Markoishvili, Sanikidze, Shengelia, Pachulia. Substitutes: Shermadini, Metreveli, Boisa, Lezhava, Patsatsia, Pulen and Fisher. Mateishvili, Bekauri and Dvalishvili have equal chances. Maybe Kokoskov has already chosen one of them but he keeps intrigue and does not name yet.
As for the match between Georgia-Estonia, a week ago at International Estonian tournament Georgians beat them with 14-point difference (90:76) and as a result “Crusandars” were considered as favorites in this match too. As it was expected, Georgians had superiority in this match, they won three periods as for the fourth one, Georgians let opponent team to equalize. Tornike Shengelia was top-scored in this match. He had 20 points, Viktor Sanikidze 19 points, 13 rebounds and double-double. As for Estonians, Reinar Halik scored 26 points.
Kote Tugushi(assistant of head coach of Georgia): “We won and it goes without saying that we are pleased. Today we were focused on the second legionary Corry Fisher and we saw that, he is not a weak player and can help our team. As far as you know, we are playing against Ukrainians in the last round and we will try to defeat them too. In the upcoming matches, we mostly will use experienced players and will care to solve our problems in defense, we have enough time for it”.
Viktor Sanikidze (player of Georgian national team):” Estonia is familiar team for us and it helped us to defeat them. It is good that we won, because our opponent was not weak. We improved our mistakes too, but we need to work much more. I hope we will beat Ukraine too tomorrow. Ukraine lost with Belarus today (Estonia, Ukraine, Belarus) but in these three teams, Ukraine is the strongest”.
Tiit Sok (Head coach of Estonian national team): Georgians have a good team. We tried to change the match several times, but the rival appeared to be stronger and that’s why could not do anything”.
Reiner Halik (basketball player of Estonian team):” it was very difficult match. Opponent team rebounded 17-point more than we. We did not do well.
As far as you know, in the first match of the day, Belarus beat Ukraine – 75:65.
On August 9, is held the third, decisive round of Tbilisi International Tournament. At 16:30 o’clock, Belarus plays against Estonia at Tbilisi Sports Palace and at 19:00 o’clock Georgia plays against Ukraine.
Georgia –Estonia 84:71 (23:18, 25:18, 22:15, 14:20)
Tournament situation after two rounds
Georgia 2 2 0 183-147 4
Ukraine 2 1 1 125-124 3
Belarus 2 1 1 151-164 3
Estonia 2 0 2 120-144 2
Roland Labuchidze
Rusudan Chumburidze
