The Kosovo U20 national basketball team has reached the quarterfinals of the European Championship Division B, which is being held in Yerevan, Armenia.
On Friday night, Kosovo lost to Switzerland with a score of 72:61.
The young Swiss won the first quarter with a score of 20:15. In the second quarter, the Kosovo basketball players responded, winning this ten-minute period 23:20.
So the score after the first half was 40:38 for Switzerland.
Five minutes before the end of the third quarter, Kosovo scored the 49th point, respectively for the score 50:49. Then they did not score for a long time. Apart from Kosovo, Switzerland also had a very weak phase and the third quarter ended 54:49 for the Swiss.
And the 50th point, Kosovo scored in the fifth minute of the fourth quarter. So the basketball players of Kosovo did not score a single point for almost ten minutes of play. Kosovo narrowed the score to 54:50. The Swiss also did not score a single point for five minutes in the fourth quarter, but then they successfully closed the game. The 51st point, Kosovo scored only 2:51 seconds before the end.
This disastrous period of play made it impossible to achieve victory.
Erolt Rrahmani was once again the best player for Kosovo with 12 points and nine rebounds. Eris Zeneli had seven points and four rebounds, while Rron Dahsyla scored 13 points and four rebounds.
Arlind Konjuhi also had 13 points, while Jon Ismajli scored 11 points, but there were many inaccurate shots and six turnovers.
For the first time, Kosovo’s age group basketball teams have reached the quarterfinals of the European B Championship. For this reason, this placement is considered historic.
Kosovo won against Sweden, Albania and Hungary in the group stage, while losing to Turkey. Kosovo U20 now has two more matches to play for the position from fifth to eighth position.