Belgian Lions advance to EC2021 Qualifications

The Belgian Lions did what they were supposed to do as they defeated Portugal on the road with the 60-70 final score.

It was anything but an easy victory though. The Portuguese came out with a lot of intensity, while our Lions struggled to hit the few open shots they received and so at the half our Lions were looking at a 41-31 deficit.
Coming out of the locker room you could already see a slight change but it was still Portugal that headed into the final quarter with the 6 point advantage. In that final quarter however the Belgian defense led by Serron, Kesteloot and Bako (who had a tremendous second half) shut down Portugal completely and were able to go up and over.

A spectacular dunk by Sam Van Rossom on the break highlighted the Lions’ excellent final quarter as they grabbed the 10 point victory and thus qualify for the qualifications for Eurobasket 2021 as leader of their group.

Sam Van Rossom was our main performer throughout the entire game as he ended up with 17 pts, 4 rebs, 4 asts & 2 stls. Ismael Bako entered the game in the second half and helped our Lions to gain the momentum. In 18 minutes he recorded 15 pts & 7 rebs. Quentin Serron played hard solid defense and finished with 9 pts & 5 rebs, while Jean Salumu came off the bench to also score 9 pts.