MADRID, 12 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish men’s wheelchair basketball team suffered its first defeat this Saturday in the European Championship, which is taking place in Rotterdam (Netherlands), after falling 52-58 against the host team.
Spain’s victorious debut in this tournament, with its emphatic 64-88 victory against Poland the day before, did not continue this time in the Rotterdam Ahoy pavilion. Despite starting well, with a 6-5 forged above all with the success of Alejandro Zarzuela, the Spanish team dried up in attack and ended the first period 6-14 down.
Led by Mattijs Bellers, the Dutch team kept their distance in the second quarter, whose accumulated partial of 13-15 put Spain at -10 at halftime (19-29). The scoring support for Alejandro Zarzuela, thanks to the work of Jordi Ruiz Jordán and Ignacio Ortega, did not prevent the Netherlands from moving away in the electronics of the pavilion (30-46).
However, Abraham Carrión’s pupils made arrests in the fourth period with the aim of speeding up their options. Thanks to a 7-2 run and then another 11-3 run, Spain closed the gap and dreamed of a comeback. But Mendel Op den Orth accompanied Mattijs Bellers on scoring tasks to stifle the reaction of his opponents in time.
The next commitment of the Spanish men’s team in this European Championship in Rotterdam will be this Sunday (5:30 p.m.) against Latvia. That duel will take place in a Group A that is still evenly matched and in which teams from Germany, Poland and Switzerland also compete.