Rio 2016. Anatoli Buyalski: “We lacked drive and fortune”

Unfortunately, the first game of the Olympic basketball tournament turned into defeat: Belarusian team lost to the Japanese with the score 73:77.

The game was extremely tense. The teams were of equal professionalism and neither could score an advantage until the end of the game, when Japanese rivals clinched a victory.

Next game will arrange the Belarusian and French teams on August 7.

“The principle reason for the defeat is a low rotation of the base-line players. Harding’s trauma also affect our team’s tactics. Ziuzkova had to replace her, and we lost 10 points during that period. The Japanese are young; therefore, their play was aggressive and passionate. We should keep in mind that our rivals are the champions of Asia, where basketball is very popular. The Chinese and Korean leagues are one of the largest and most prosperous.