Germany completed its dominant sweep of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023’s Group E with a resounding 101-75 victory over Finland on Tuesday at the Okinawa Arena in Japan.
The Die Mannschaft are entering Group K with so much momentum, also beating Japan (81-63) and Australia (85-82).
So far, the Germans are the only team that have advanced to Group K as Japan and Australia will still battle it out later in the day.
Over in Group F, Slovenia (2-0), Georgia (1-1), Cape Verde (1-1), and Venezuela (0-2) are still in contention for the second round that begins on Friday still at the same Japan venue.
Dennis Schroder set the tone early for Germany, scoring 13 of his 15 points in the early stages of the game.
With the game tied at 27-all in the 7-minute mark of the second quarter, Germany unloaded a commanding 10-0 run to go up 37-27 in two minutes.
The 11th-ranked world team pulled away further in the second half quarter, with the lead ballooning to as much as 28 points in the fourth frame.
“It was a great team effort… the first seven to eight minutes… the starters struggled and the second unit came in and set the tempo of how we wanted to play,” Germany head coach Gordie Herbert said in the postgame interview.
Germany’s defense fed Finland with 18 turnovers, double the Die Mannschaft’s nine.
Isaac Bonga also got 15 points along with three others scoring in double-digits for Germany to make it difficult for Finland to match the German offense.
Oliver Nkamhoua led the scoring for Wolf Pack, dropping 14 points, while Utah Jazz star Lauri Markkanen and Ilari Seppala both added 12 markers.
Finland’s Wolf Pack will drop to the classification phase with a 0-3 record. (Jose Gabriel Ignacio)
The Scores:
Germany 101 — Bonga 15, Schroder 15, Theimann 13, M.Wagner 12, Obst 11, Theis 8, Giffey 7, Kramer 6, Hollatz 6, Voigtmann 5, Lo 3
Finland 75 — Nkamhoua 14, Seppala 12, Markkanen 12, Grandison 7, Maxhuni 7, Salin 6, Valtonen 6, Jantunen 6, Madsen 5, Kantonen 0, Little 0
Quarterscores: 19-22, 47-39, 76-55, 101-75
