Preliminary basketball game with unsuccessful ending

Slovak women’s basketball played a preliminary game against home China at the Chengdu World University Games on Wednesday. The team, led by coach Richard Kucs, tried out the atmosphere of the large Fenghuangshan Sports Hall, where they will also play their first game against Taiwan on Saturday, July 29 at 11:00 (Slovak time). The Slovak women lost to the Chinese 83:44, but they took away great experience from the game, which they can use especially in the first game against the Asian team. The second group match will be played on Sunday 30 July at 13:30 (Slovak time) against the Czech Republic at Sichuan Stadium.

Dominika Urbanová, a student of the Technical University in Košice, was the team’s top scorer. “It’s hard to evaluate the match because the result is what it is,” Dominika began. “I believe we learned new things that we need to work on. We were betrayed by our psyche in the second quarter. I don’t know what it was, I think we were out of sorts, we weren’t doing well and we couldn’t get back into the game. The second quarter was very decisive, but I think we could have been a more balanced opponent for sure. I’m glad that we got at least some points, even though we couldn’t score many,” Urbanova added.

Coach Richard Kucsa highlighted the opportunity to try a competitive match. “First of all, I want to say that I am very happy that we could play this match in a beautiful huge sports hall. As far as the match was concerned, you could see that we probably had a critical 3-4 day since our arrival. We were pretty unsuccessful in our shot attempts. At the end of the first quarter, the Chinese women pulled away from us and were already keeping their distance. Still, I think the last 20-25 minutes of the game were even and first of all I am glad we were able to experience the atmosphere, the game and we will try to build on that and have a better result in the next phase,” Kucsa assessed the game. He has a clear opinion on the team’s opri. “We are relying on the team performance. Every player had her fluctuations today – weaker and lighter moments. I believe that those leaders we have in the team will find their cool in the group stage and be real leaders.” The group stage will feature two consecutive days against Taiwan and the Czech Republic. “We know the Czechs, we don’t know Taiwan that well. That’s also why I’m glad we tried the Asian style, because Taiwan should play very similarly. We will see if they will have such a dominant tall player like the Chinese had. We will definitely focus on that in the training process,” Kucsa said.

The team enters the group stage with the goal of advancing further. “We would definitely like to advance out of the group. And the more wins, the better.”

Composition of the Slovak basketball team:

Tatiana Bábiková, Timea Čatlošová, Martina Dovčíková, Anna Kaliužná, Michaela Lukačíková, Martina Machalová, Petra Oborilová, Kamila Plavnická, Ema Rodáková, Soňa Svetlíková, Dominika Urbanová, Zuzana Vargová

GROUP MATCHES:

29 July 2023 at 11:00 (SVK time) – SLOVAKIA – Taiwan

30 July 2023 at 13:30 (SVK time) – SLOVAKIA – Czech Republic

Slovak University Team information

Complete Slovak team composition: http://svkuniteam.sk/o-nas/

Gallery – PHOTO and VIDEO: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1PvMfsWYveMe6ZwYK_uFj8L15xnEZf2O0

Results: results.2021chengdu.com

Instagram: @svkuniteam

Website: www.svkuniteam.sk