Group A

Argentina-Tunisia- 92:69

Argentina: Luis Scola, Manu Ginobili, Facundo Campazzo, Carlos Delfino, Andreas Nocioni

Head Coach: Julio Lamas

Tunisia: Marouan Laghnej, Mourad El Mabrouk, Makrem Ben Romdhane, Amine Rzig, Salah Mejri

Head Coach: Adel Tlatli

Tunisia lost to Argentina (69:92) in the third match day of the London 2012 men’s basketball competition. Everyone expected this Group A game to finish like this, but nobody could have predicted the development of the match. But first things first!

Julio Lamas had made one change to his usual Starting 5, and instead of Pablo Prigioni we saw Facundo Campazzo on the court. The 21-year old, who is just 179 cm. tall did a decent job though and finished the game with 12 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists.

There was one change in the Tunisian team as well. Marouan Laghnej took Marouan Kechrid’s place in the Starting 5.

The first quarter was probably the strangest we’ve so far seen at these Olympics, as outsiders Tunisa won it 14:28. They got off to a 0:7 lead and were generally the better team throughout these first 10 minutes. Makrem Ben Romdhane and Salah Mejri scored 8 points each, and at the end of the quarter everyone probably thought that we’d be in for a huge upset.

That’s not what Argentina thought though, and they crushed their opponents in the first minutes of the second quarter. They got on a 15:0 scoring run and completely overturned the result- 29:28. All of these 15 points were scored by Luis Scola and Manu Ginobili, and despite their excellent play some alarms started ringing. Because, as in the previous match against France, it seemed that the Argentineans are not a team of 5 players but of two. This changed later on in the game, but it’s a fact that the South Americans are way too dependent on these two players. But mind you, Scola is 32 years old and Ginobili is 35…

Anyway, despite their much better performance in the second quarter, Argentina were unable to get a lead and the score at half time was 40:40.

They absolutely dominated the third quarter and won it 31:16, but this time it wasn’t just Scola and Manu who were trying hard. Carlos Delfino, the Milwaukee Bucks small forward played decently, and the above-mentioned Campazzo also contributed.

After this quarter it was clear that Argentina are going to win this game, the only question was by how much. The answer- by 23, as they won this last part 21:13 and took the final score to 92:69.

Despite the victory it’s clear that there are some problems in this Argentina team, and although they were considered favorites for a medal before the competition, I now have my doubts that they’d be able to repeat their achievements from 2004 or 2008.

Argentina will face the other African side in this group in their next game, Nigeria, while Tunisia plays against France.

 Top Scorers:

Argentina: Manu Ginobili 24, Carlos Delfino 21

Tunisia: Salah Mejri 19, Mourad El Mabrouk 16

Rebounds:

Argentina: Luis Scola 10, Facundo Campazzo 9

Tunisia: Salah Mejri 14, Makrem Ben Romdhane 6

Assists:

Argentina: Facundo Campazzo 7, Luis Scola 5

Tunisia: Marouan Laghnej 6

Double-doubles: Luis Scola (ARG) 20 points, 10 rebounds; Salah Mejri (TUN) 19 points, 14 rebounds

Tags: Adel Tlatli, Amine Rzig, Andres Nocioni, Argentina, Argentina-Tunisia- 92:69, assist, basketball, Carlos Delfino, double-double, Emanuel Ginobili, Facundo Campazzo, Federico Kammerichs, Group A, Hernán Jasen, Juan Pedro Gutiérrez, Julio Lamas, Leonardo Gutierrez, London 2012, Luis Scola, Makrem Ben Romdhane, Marcos Mata, Marouan Kechrid, Marouan Laghnej, Martín Leiva, Mehdi Hafsi, Mourad El Mabrouk, Olympics, Pablo Prigioni, rebound, Salah Mejri, Tunisia