JWSport Jacek Waszak – Sport journalist
The Polish basketball team lost to the Czech Republic in the first match for 5-8 World Cup places and in view of the earlier defeat of the United States against Serbia, it is the United States that we will have to face the seventh place. On paper, the team that tried to defend its four-year title in China will be a definite favourite.
On 9 June 1967 in Montevideo, Poland entered the match against the home country basketball team with the balance sheet 1-1 in direct confrontations with the USA. These were official social meetings. They took place in April 1964, when the American team preparing for the Tokyo Olympics came to Poland. Each of the teams competed in the system with six teams selected in the knock-out phase and the host Uruguay.
The charges of coach Witold Zagorski lost earlier to the Soviet Union (61:86), Yugoslavia (78:82) and Brazil (85:90) and defeated Argentina (65:58), which opened the way for them to the fifth place. The Polish National Team played with the Americans at the World Cup until 52 years ago in Uruguay and our team lost the game 61:91.
Serbia won the United States at these championships 94:89 and it will play against the Czech Republic for places 5-6. Poles and Americans will face a match for places 7-8. Of course, the favorites of this confrontation will be the basketball players from the USA, who last time did not manage to win a medal only in 1980, when they simply did not go to the Olympic Games in Moscow.
Poles of this match did not start well and could not throw for three from the very beginning of the game and had problems with this element (from behind the line 6.75 m.) players from the U.S. led already 9:4 and 11:6 after the throws of Harrison Barnes and Donovan Mitchell for three points. After two good actions of Poles – Mateusz Ponitka, who hit Donovan Mitchell from under his nose and 18-year-old Aleksander Balcerowski, who passed two defenders from the final line and ended the manoeuvres with an impressive dunk in the basket, there were only four points 14:18 in 6 minutes.
In 1 minute points at 0:2 Mateusz Ponitka scored a nice, individual action.
9 : 4 in the first minute of the first quarter Adam Waczyński 2/2 hits the line in the first 3 minutes, but the USA already has 3/3 in 3 minutes!
18 : 14 in the 7th minute Aleksander Balcerowski impressively put the ball from the top. Good action of our basketball players.
By the end of this part Poles did not score a point and after 10 minutes Americans won 28:14 at the end of the first quarter. We are clearly losing, mainly due to poor efficiency – 6/16 from the game, including 0/7 for three.
In the second quarter the trainers of both teams used substitutes, but this did not change the image of the game. NBA players further increased their advantage at 31:14 and 41:23.
36 : 19 such a result was already visible in the second quarter in the 4 minute USA had a colossal difference in the threesome – Americans threw 7/10, and Poles: 0/9
38 : 23 in the 5th minute of the second quarter good entrance of Olejniczak, then successful action of Ponitka. Good period of Poles, Time requests coach Popovich for the USA .
45 : 28 Meanwhile Khris Middleton already has 11 points and is the best scorer in the USA.
In the first half of the players of coach Gregg Popovic, five-time NBA champion from San Antonio Spurs, scored 8 of 13 throws for three points, while the Poles only 1 of 15.
65 : 57 in the second minute of the game Mateusz Ponitka along the line made a spectacular dunk and was still fouled. Our leader added an accurate free kick and only 8 points of difference at the beginning of the fourth quarter.
68 : 58 In the third minute we are fighting as equals and coach Mike made some changes and Waczynski and Slaughter are back on the court.
70 : 60 4 minutes Americans jump again. Derrick White scores points after successful entry into the basket. Time for Polish Coach Mike Taylor Napenow we have to organize ourselves in defense and better be effective for three points because we still do not succeed in attacking.
70 : 63 is the last 5 minutes of Damian Kulig with a successful 2+1 action. We return to seven points of loss. This is a spectacular and how important action in this match.
75 : 66 is already 7 minutes of play and Mateusz Ponitka hits in three! The Second of our leaders has already 16 points, more only “Waca” has more. – Waczynski – 17.
77 : 66 Adam Hrycaniuk fouls Barnes, the referees rule unsportsmanlike fouls.
81 : 68 Two minutes to the end of the match and the Americans added a few points and return to a safe lead.
83 : 72 For one minute to the end Impressive entry of Ponitki, who is next to Waczynski our best player in this match.
87 : 74 Poland – USA 74:87 that’s how the match in China ended. It was a beautiful story of our players. In this match we took up the fight and played as equals after 52 years of break, POLAND ends the World Cup in China on the 8th place. It is a great success for our republic.
Poles are finishing the World Championships with a balance sheet of 4-4. After an excellent start, when they won four matches – first three in the group (against Venezuela, China and Côte d’Ivoire), then the key with Russia in the second stage (79:74), they suffered defeats with higher ranked rivals: Argentina (65:91), Spain in the quarter-finals (78:90), the Czech Republic (84:94) and the USA.
I am proud of you. You made our dreams come true. I would like to thank you very much for that, so the President of PZKOSZ, Radosław Piesiewicz, spoke to the players after the tournament. The interview was given to Polsat Sport.
Poland – USA 74:87 (14:28, 16:19, 25:16, 19:24)
Poland : Mateusz Ponitka 18, Adam Waczyński 17, A.J. Slaughter 15, Damian Kulig 9, Michał Sokołowski 7, Adam Hrycaniuk 4, Aleksander Balcerowski 2, Dominik Olejniczak 2, Łukasz Koszarek 0, Aaron Cel 0, Karol Gruszecki 0, Kamil Łączyński 0
USA: Donovan Mitchell 16, Joe Harris 14, Khris Middleton 13, Derrick White 12, Harrison Barnes 10, Jaylen Brown 8, Myles Turner 7, Mason Plumlee 4, Brook Lopez 3
Final classification of the 18th World Cup:
Spain, 2 Argentina, 3. France, 4. Australia, 5. Serbia, 6. Czech Republic, 7. USA, 8. Poland, 9. Lithuania, 10. Italy, 11. Greece, 12. Russia, 13. Brazil, 14. Venezuela, 15. Puerto Rico, 16. Dominican Republic, 17th Nigeria (promotion to Tokyo 2020), 18th Germany, 19th New Zealand, 20th Tunisia, 21st Canada, 22nd Turkey, 23rd Iran (promotion to Tokyo 2020), 24th China, 25th Montenegro, 26th South Korea, 26th South Korea, 12th Tunisia, 13th Brazil, 14th Venezuela, 15th Puerto Rico, 16th Venezuela, 27 Angola, 28 Jordan, 29 Ivory Coast, 30 Senegal, 31 Japan (host country participation in Tokyo 2020), 32 Philippines
