Royal Ivey, South Sudan’s head coach, spoke at a press conference after a 101-96 overtime loss against Puerto Rico.
Although they had everything in their hands, South Sudan were defeated after a lot of drama and overtime. They were not helped either by the game shown by MVP and the best scorer of the G League, Carlik Jones, who finished the match with 38 points, 11 assists and six rebounds.
“A match with many twists and turns. We had a 10-point lead at halftime, they caught up with us. Then we took a seven-point lead. Honestly, I don’t know the numbers right now, I have to watch the video. I wonder what the key to the game is.
A lot of things are going through my head right now. We had 22 turnovers and allowed 23 offensive rebounds to the opponent, that’s my first thought right now. I am proud of my players, they played until the very end. This is a learning experience for us. Ups and downs happen, this is a huge lesson.” – Royal Ivey said on press conference opening.
With three tenths to go, Puerto Rico had two free throws for the win. After a series of near misses, coach Royal Ivey reacted rather emotionally, which he told the journalists present:
“When they had two free throws to win I got our fans on their feet. I went crazy then, unbelievably. I cannot form any exclusive opinion now. We know what is good, what is bad. We had the game in our hands, we lost it, we can’t be happy. We will not come to terms with it easily, we still have to learn a lot and be better in the continuation of the FIBA World Cup.“
In the next round of Mundobasket, South Sudan’s opponent will be the Chinese team. That duel is scheduled for Monday, August 28.