The first 'trial by fire' for the national team took place this Tuesday, at the Zalgirio pavilion, in the city of Kaunas, Lithuania. The 'Palancas Negras' lost against Poland by a difference of 19 points.
The team never managed to turn the score around, and went into halftime already trailing by 12 points. Despite the effort to recover, the team never managed to impose itself in front of the more consistent Poles.
Despite the defeat, Angolan forward Yanick Moreira was the best player of the match with a total of 27 points, 7 rebounds and 2 assists.
However, all is not lost: the Angolans can still pass to the next phase of the pre-Olympic tournament. For this, the team will have to win the game this Wednesday, June 30, against Slovenia.
In the next phase of the competition, the top two teams from group B will join the top two from group A (Lithuania, Venezuela, and South Korea). Then the cross-over system will be applied, meaning that the first from group A will play the second from group B and the first from group B will play the second from group A. This will be followed by the final of the pre-Olympic phase, where the winner will qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
This is the third time that the national team tries to win a place in an Olympic event through the pre-Olympic phase. Angola has not been to an Olympic Games since 2008, in Beijing.
