The captain of the Ukrainian National basketball team and the captain of "Prometey" Denys Lukashov commented on the reasons for such a result in the match in Riga at a press conference after the defeat by the Italian national team as part of the qualification for the 2023 World Cup.

"We started the first half very well, especially in defense, there was a lot of aggression from our side.

The Italians have many good players who play in the NBA, in the Euroleague, especially big guys who can make good three-point shots. We didn't let them make easy shots. However, in the third quarter we had too much respect for them, it was as if we decided to see if they could hit - of course they did and managed to completely change the course of the match.

They scored just 34 points in the first half and over 60 in the second half. Of course, that's not normal. We tried to be more aggressive and get back into the game, but it was not easy because of the quality of Italian players.

We are disappointed but we have to move on and focus on the upcoming matches. We should watch and analise the video, what we didn't do well enough, try to focus and beat Iceland," Lukashov said.

Let us recall that the Ukrainian National basketball team lost to Italy with a score of 89:97. Denys Lukashov became one of the best in the team with 10 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists.

On August 27, Ukrainians will play an away match against the National team of Iceland. The game starts at 23:00 Kyiv time.