Georgia has convincingly defeated North Macedonia
Georgian national basketball team defeated North Macedonia with 21 points. Our team coached by Ilias Zouros, which lacked a number of leading players, defeated a historically awkward opponent without problems.
However, the threat that the Georgian team would have a hard time with the North Macedonians was not groundless. Our team lacked captain Tornike Shengelia, main point guard Giorgi Tsintsadze, one of the leading forwards Beka Burjanadze and several other strong players. Nevertheless, Georgia was clearly ahead of North Macedonia and the reason for this was primarily the higher playing class and coaching factor.
Our team trained by Ilias Zouros and his assistants played as mobilized as possible, with the high discipline. In each section, even while winning by 23 points at the end, the Georgians fought till the end. The Greek specialist demanded the maximum from the players and did not allow our team to relax during the whole game.
As a result, Georgia gained an advantage from the very beginning, and after promoting in the beginning, it was steadily increasing its leadership, except for small episodes. Our team had only 3 legionnaires with the North Macedonians – Giorgi Shermadini, Duda Sanadze and Thad McFadden, who played brilliantly, but the Super League players are also worth mentioning. Olympian Kakha Jincharadze and Ilia Londaridze fought to the end exemplarily and contributed to the victory.
TSU member Mikheil Berishvili and Beka Bekauri from Batumi played well and scored many important points. It is true that Givi Bakradze did not score points, but he was controlling the ball well and transferring it safely to the opponent’s half, where his teammates were finishing the job – mostly successfully. Rustavi forward Merab Bokolishvili, who was mainly engaged in defensive functions, played steadily and gained 4 points, as well as Londaridze and Bekauri.
The best result was recorded by Giorgi Shermadin, who achieved 35 indexes of usefulness. He scored 20 points, 15 rebounds and 6 assists. Thad McFadden had 26 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists. Duda Sanadze collected 11 points, Mikheil Berishvili and Kakha Jintcharadze scored 10-10 points each.
Georgian team has 2 victories out of 3 matches and is in the 2nd place in the standings after the undefeated Spain. In this round, Spain defeated Ukraine at home 88:74. On February 27, the Georgian team will play against North Macedonia again in Skopje.
