Stojanovski: We failed to adapt to Iceland’s physical play, now we look ahead

The North Macedonia men's cadet basketball team opened the European Championship B–Division, hosted in Skopje and Gevgelija, with a defeat against Iceland, falling 75-87 in their first match.

Coach's assessment

“We expected a physically very strong opponent, but we failed to adapt in time to their style of play and to implement what we agreed before the match.

With zone defence we managed to come back on the scoreboard, but in attack we rushed too much and were not disciplined in executing our set plays. At one point we perhaps stayed in zone defence too long. That was a coaching decision and I take responsibility for it, but we made many mistakes in rotations and allowed the opponent too many open three-point shots.

Iceland attempted as many as 51 three-pointers, something you rarely see. They hit 13, and we, unlike yesterday's match, were not in shooting rhythm and on several occasions made poor shot choices.

The final score does not fully reflect the picture on the court, because the game was level for a long time. In the finish we tried once more with a press to get back, but it was already too late.

Now we only look ahead. Tomorrow we face an extremely quality team, and we will give our everything, just as we did today,” said the coach, Dejan Stojanovski.

Reporter: Ognen Dojcinovski

Photo: press material from the event