Nice try, Norway!
Written by Arild Sandven
&cool;6 August 2022
The Norwegian U18 girls won the last 14 minutes 32-16, but only almost managed to recover Austria’s entire lead. It ended 60-64, but the play in the third and fourth period was uplifting before the jumbo final against North Macedonia on Sunday.
Norway – Austria 60-64
For now, the girls are keen to finish with a win, after six straight losses.
– We will prepare as for the other games, work seriously on the tasks and hope that it will last. We score 60 points today, but we miss too much in defense and Austria gets too many “second chance points”, stated Tommy Gundersen.
The Austrians won the rebounding statistics narrowly with 46-44, but brought down 20 offensive rebounds and scored many of their points on “second chances”.
Skewed – again
Once again, Norway got off to a lopsided start, with 0-5 and 3-10 before the team lifted a little further in the first period (10-16).
Until the break, Austria still controlled (35-23) and increased to 20 points early in the third period, 48-28.
But with the trio Aurora Sørbye, Celine Klett and Lara Gianni on the pitch, the pick-up started at the same time. Norway won the last 4 minutes of the period 12-1 and was only 9 behind (40-49) when the fourth period began.
Strong final sprint
The Norwegian girls performed an impressive final sprint. At 44-56 with 5:40 left to play, Austria took a timeout, but it was Norway that was the best when the teams were back on the field.
Aurora Sørbye went solo and scored 56-64 and Lara Gianni was fouled and scored one of two penalties to make it 57-64 with 1:07 left. Then Celine Klett drove in 59-64, was fouled and made the free throw:
60-64 and still 15 seconds.
Norway had to make a mistake and send Austria to the penalty line, did so and even got two Austrian misses. But Celine Klett’s last and desperate 3-pointer didn’t sit, and besides, it was 4 points up.
If the match had lasted a minute longer, maybe it would have passed?
30-14 with an experienced trio
The importance of having Aurora Sørbye and the U20 national team duo Celine Klett and Lara Gianni on the field at the same time was also evident in the statistics:
14-6 to Norway in the first “period” with the experienced trio, 16-8 in the second which was the last 5:40 of the match. Total 30-14.
Celine Klett was the team’s most efficient player with 14 points and 4 assists in barely 23 minutes, Lara Gianni had 7 points, 10 rebounds (most) and 3 steals and Aurora Sørbye was top scorer with 16 points and also had 5 assists.
God Gruber
Ingeborg Nitter Gruber also put in a solid application for more playing time against North Macedonia, with smart choices in attack, 8 rebounds and 4 assists. In the 20 minutes the Tromsø forward played, Norway had a +19 score on Austria.
Several other players also stepped up in the game, and that bodes well ahead of Sunday’s game.
Norway also limited the number of turnovers to 25, thus continuing their progress after 36 against Iceland (after overtime) and Denmark and 31 against Ireland. Under 20 against North Macedonia had done it.
Definite losses
The Macedonians, like the Norwegian girls, have lost all their matches so far, even with clearer numbers than Norway:
27-94 against Portugal, 55-91 against Luxembourg, 54-71 against Great Britain, 43-96 against Croatia, 57-66 against Estonia (which Norway beat in Nordic) and 47-91 against Ukraine.
Scorers Norway: Aurora Sørbye 16, Celine Klett 14, Lara Gianni 7, Sunniva Vik Pettersen 6, Camilla Gjerstad 4, Selma Deisz 3, Mathea Lindbråten 3, Maja K. Osmundsvåg 3, Tiril Løtvedt Frogner 2, Susanne Gjerstad 1, Ingeborg Nitter Gruber 1, Ingeborg Nitter 1, Ingeborg Nitter.
Top scorer Austria: Anna Alborova 21.
U18 EC WOMEN, DIV. B SATURDAY:
Semi-final: Portugal – Serbia 62-55, Slovenia – Slovakia 82-48.
5th – 8th place: Croatia – Romania 89-47, Netherlands – Bulgaria 67-61.
9-18
Group E:
Luxembourg – Ukraine 73-67, Great Britain – Estonia 75-56.
The final position: Luxembourg 4-0, Great Britain 3-1, Estonia 2-2, Ukraine 1-3, North Macedonia 0-4.
Group F:
Norway – Austria 60-64, Ireland – Iceland 68-58.
The final position: Ireland 3-1, Iceland 3-1, Austria 3-1, Denmark 1-3, Norway 0-4.
Placement games Sunday:
Final (19.30): Portugal – Slovenia
Bronze match (17.15): Serbia – Slovakia
5th place (15.00): Croatia – Netherlands
7th place (12.45): Bulgaria – Romania
9th place (10.30): Luxembourg – Ireland
11th place (17.15): Great Britain – Iceland
13th place (15.00): Estonia – Austria
15th place (12.45): Ukraine – Denmark
17th place (10.30): Norway – North Macedonia