OMM Newsroom
Neftchi basketball club lost 78-73 to Switzerland’s Fribourg Olympic in the FIBA Europe Cup. The Baku side’s head coach, Konstantinos Vassiliadis, commented on his team’s performance after the game.
According to Vassiliadis, Neftchi played well only in the first quarter. The team made a strong start, committed few errors in attack and defense, and converted its opportunities. However, the number of mistakes increased from the second quarter through to the end of the game.
“19 turnovers are unacceptable”
Vassiliadis said that committing 19 turnovers in an away game was unacceptable. He said the team created good scoring opportunities but failed to convert them and was inaccurate from three-point range. The coach added that the team performed poorly when transitioning from defense to attack, particularly in individual defense, allowing opponents too much freedom in one-on-one situations.
“We played poorly for about 30 minutes, but despite that, we lost by only five points. This shows that our team has potential and talent. The problem is that we could not maintain the necessary mental preparation and focus for all 40 minutes. We need to work on this and improve,” Vassiliadis said.
Preparing for the game against Ganja
The head coach said the team would review its mistakes at Friday’s practice before turning its attention to the Azerbaijan championship game against Ganja. Vassiliadis said the match was important for the team and that they wanted to secure their third consecutive win in the national championship.
