Game three for OKC Thunder guard Dennis Schroder and his National team finally netted a win for the German squad who were 0-2 prior to this victory.
It took three games and two heartbreaking losses but the German Team led by OKC Thunder point guard Dennis Schroder finally captured their first victory at the FIBA 2019 World Cup tournament.
Suffice to say it was too little, too late as the two previous losses meant the Schroder and his team lost all chances to win the World Cup. This match was more about pride and placement as the teams who failed to advance to the elimination round of the tourney are now in a position to capture placement and subsequently be invited to one of four wild card tournaments to fill out the Olympic 12 team participants.
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To that end, the top seven squads and host nation Japan capture immediate entry to Toyko, Japan next summer for the Olympics. The other four teams will be determined via four separate wild card events.
In this their last game versus the Group G opponents the Germans easily handled Team Jordan with a resounding 96 to 62 winning effort.
In his third game of the FIBA 2019 tournament, Dennis produced a more balanced effort delivering a double-double of 10 points and 11 assists with a steal while lowering his turnovers to just two after coughing the ball up four times in each of the two previous losses.
The OKC Thunder backup point guard was accompanied by a trio of teammates who also scored in double-digits. Mavericks Maxi Kleber scored a team high 18 points, Danilo Barthel added 13 points and Bulls big man Paul Zipser chipped in 12 points.
Team Germany won every quarter starting with an opening frame of 28 to 17. The second quarter featured the Germans eeking out a 20 to 19 point effort to take a 48 to 36 lead into half time.
More of the same followed after the break with Schroder and his mates delivering an 18 to 13 third quarter and finishing off the match with a resounding 30 to 13 punctuation point.
Next up, the German team and Schroder move into round two where they’ll play for positioning and an invite to one of the four wild card tournaments to gain an Olympic berth and be played during the season which means no NBA players will be involved. Their first match of the second round will be against Senegal on September 7th.