Basketball: Portugal loses again in World Cup qualification
Portugal was late in the race to the 2023 World Cup with an 83-69 defeat, in Montenegro, in the second round of group E of the first European qualifying round.
The national team, which had already lost to Hungary in the opening round, arrived at half-time at a disadvantage by 41-36. However, Portugal did not manage to get closer in the complementary stage and saw the Montenegrin team flee the marker.
Portugal came to lead in the initial phase, up to 6-5, but from the hosts they reacted and ended up with ten points ahead (24-14).
A 7-0 partial at the start of the second period, dreaming of recovery (24-21), but Montenegro responded with an 8-0 that keep him a safe distance, although reduced at half-time to 41-36, at best stage of Mário Gomes’ team.
Portugal left for the last period eight points behind (64-56), eventually losing by 14. Daniel Relvão, with 16 points, was the Portuguese top scorer, while the most effective of Montenegro was Justin Cobbs.
With two group defeats that count three, Portugal is in last. France leads with two wins while Montenegro is second and Hungary is third.
Game sheet:
Arbitrators: Manuel Mazzoni, Vilius Maciulaitis and Sergei Beliakov.
Montenegro (83): Justin Cobbs (22), Dino Radoncic (7), Radosav Spasojevic (8), Zoran Nikolic (11) and Fedor Zugic (3). Vladimir Mihailovic (16), Nikola Pavlicevic (3), Andrija Slavkovic, Nemanja Radovic (13) and Filip Barovic also played.
Coach: Bosko Radovic.
Portugal (69): Diogo Brito (13), Diogo Ventura (14), Miguel Queiroz (3), Pedro Bastos (2) and Sasa Borovnjak (1). Vladyslav Voytso (3), José Barbosa (5), Sérgio Silva, Francisco Amarante (10), Gonçalo Delgado (2), Daniel Relvão (16) and Francisco Amiel also played.
Coach: Mário Gomes.
Scorer march: 24-14 (10 minutes), 41-36 (break), 54-56 (30 minutes), 83-69 (end score).