Basketball | Markkanen led the dunk party and Salin hit the long throws with razor-sharp precision in Susijeng’s World Cup qualifying win over Estonia

Tallinn

Wolf gang under the eyes of his own and enthusiastic fan base, claimed an important World Cup qualifying victory 76–68 against Estonia in the Saku suurhalli.

The winning numbers look big, but the result lies. The work for the points was much more demanding than the difference of eight surfaces indicates.

“Yes, we know that these are difficult games away from home,” said Lauri Markkanen about his 18-point night. Markkanen believed that he could still improve the game and that the team could do it.

The decisive stages of the match seemed to coincide with the beginning and end of the second ten-minute period. First Lauri Markkanen pressed one dunk after another, and in the last minutes of the set Sasu Salin showed what a great long throw line means.

Salin forged nine points in a row and tore Susijeng on the run at the end of the second period. The gap grew to 11 points and began to put the seal on this struggle.

In the third ten-minute period, Susijengi fell into the pit. Korinteko became painful and the lead melted. By the time of the EC tournament and during it, it is necessary to evaporate or even clearly reduce the dark periods.

“We lost our focus a little bit and settled for what we did in the first half,” Salin said after his 20-point performance, in which he sank half of his ten three-pointers. An accuracy of 50 percent withstands an international comparison.

“Estonia came into the game physically hard, but I have praised From Topia [Palmi] and Henkka [Henri Kantonen]how they pulled us back from the worst slump.”

Salin was even a little critical of his own throwing game, even though the accuracy was good.

“Mediocre. There were a couple that I could have put in even better and there were a few bad throws as well. It’s really nice when a few go in,” said Salin.

“Yes, I always throw when there is a spot and I think it will go in. There is self-confidence.”

National basketball team supporters have gathered sympathy in arms. Often in large numbers, but always at least loud. There was enough support even now, although it is not easy to get an arena that can hold 10,000 spectators to overflowing.

Hero back man Petteri Koponen was missing from Susijeng’s lineup. Koponen is playing his farewell international matches and took a suitable responsible role in the previous World Cup qualifier against Israel.

Estonia beat Germany and Poland in the first stage of the qualification and showed that they are capable of a good performance against Finland as well.

When Estonia had to push its skills and capacity to the upper limits, Susijengi looked for the right jengos for their game.

Markkanen grabbed rebounds, remained a threat in every attack and thus made room for others with his mere being, which was also very active.

Under the coaching of Jukka Toijala, Estonia relied a little on the same type of selections as Finland, but remained second in material. Estonia lacked a multipurpose machine like Markkanen and a throwing line like Salini.

German victory Slovenia is starting to anchor Finland and Germany even more strongly as the top two teams in the qualifying group, while the three continue to the games next fall to the final tournament shared by Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines.

There are two matches left in the World Cup qualifiers, as the qualifiers continue in November and end in February.

Susijengi will travel to Prague for the EC tournament on Wednesday, where Finland will start the matches on Friday. In the opening match, Finland will face Israel, a familiar opponent from last Thursday’s World Cup qualifier in Tampere.