Reprisal of Slovak-Swedish game within preparatory stage before U20 European Championship Women 2012, which starts this week in Hungarian Debrecen, was very similar to the result of the first mutual game. Fortunately for our colors, with the buzzer this similarity disappeared and this time young Slovaks managed to win the game by 4 points score difference.

SLOVAKIA – Sweedn 67:63 (11:14, 26:29, 46:45)

Slovakia: Bartánusová 13, Janoščíková 8, Hruščáková 6, Kiššová 3, Oravcová 1 (M. Páleníková 11, Bálintová 9, Letková and Nagyová 8, Draganovská 0). Coach: Maroš Kováčik

Švédsko: Abdi 14 (10 rebounds), Drammeh 11, Vesterberg 10, E. Nyström 7, Noaksson 2 (A. Nyström 8, Gustavsson and Holmqvist 4, Ngoie 3, Christensen and Persson 0). Coach: Fredrik Joulamo

TH: 26/34 – 17/22, fouls: 25 – 30, 5 fouls: Persson, Drammeh and Vesterberg (all Sweden), three-point field goals: 1/11 – 4/20, referees: T. Lukáč, R. Hricišin and T. Kiss, quarters: 11:14, 15:15, 20:16, 21:18

Maroš Kováčik (coach of Slovak U20 NT): "We have played two games against quality opponent, who tested us within offensive, but also defensive aspect. In the course of our preparation before championship we gradually encountered with more and more quality opponents and matches against Sweden were from this point of view real climax. Both game were pretty similar, while in the first one were luckier players from Sweden. In the second game we showed greater desire for victory, so finally "Lady Fortune" smiled on us. Moreover we supported our performance, mainly by improved play in defense, although in offensive stage we had some slight problems, I can utter great satisfaction with both games."

Games against the selection of "Tre Kronor" shouldn’t have shown just the shape of our young basketball players, but for duo Barbora Bálintová – Žofia Hruščáková it was also space to get familiarized with older colleagues, because they came just at the beginning of the last week after U18 European Championship 2012 where they played for Slovak U18 team..

"They have adapted quickly and well. It was quite obvious that they lacked some mental strengths, so they will have more free time. While other girls will have time off only on Sunday and Monday, above mentioned duo we expect on training session on Tuesday morning," stated trainer of our young basketball players Maroš Kováčik.

He exactly knows the portion of trainings before the championship. "We will just work on some details, also we are gonna watch some video recordings from previous games in order to analyze our biggest mistakes and we’ll focus on particular shortcomings of each player. We are traveling to Debrecen on Wednesday, where everything burst out," concluded Maroš Kováčik.

Fixtures of Slovak NT in GROUP D of U20 European Championship Women 2012 in Debrecen:

16th August 2012 (Thursday): SLOVAKIA - Serbia (6. 15 pm.)

17th August 2012 (Friday): Russia - SLOVAKIA (4 pm.)

18th August 2012 (Saturday): SLOVAKIA – Great Britain (1. 45 pm.)