RIGA (Latvia) - Latvia and Cameroon's respective paths to the Semi-Finals of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament 2024 in Riga were not straightforward or the route that most people had predicted.
After their opening defeat to Montenegro, most were ruling the African side out, but they survived and advanced regardless after a hard fought success against Brazil. As for the host nation, they were expected to go 2-0 in Group A, but came out on top despite a shock loss to Philippines.
Now, they will unexpectedly face each other to, with the winner moving to within one solitary victory of lining up in Paris.
Key matchup
The biggest showdown of the second Semi-Final on Saturday will happen playmaking-wise, where Arturs Zagars and Jeremiah Hill may need to put their respective teams on their backs.
Zagars was sidelined by Latvia Coach Luca Banchi against the Philippines, so the revelation point guard of the competition should come back hungrier than ever. He will look to push his team to the Final, with Zagars having already proven how to take over.
On the opposing end, he will have to deal with one of the most in-form players in the tournament. Being named TCL Player of the Game against Brazil after a clutch 22-point night against Brazil, Jeremiah Hill is eager for more and will be the driving force for Cameroon.
X-Factors
Latvia suffered the quick and flow-oriented style of playing displayed by Tim Cone's Philippines, and they already proved during the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 to be a good matchup to physical teams, like Germany for instance.
Limiting Cameroon's weapons should be easier because there's not as much unpredictability at stake as there was against Gilas. On the other hand, Alfred Aboya's African team demonstrated against Brazil their high-pressure defensive display.
If Latvia keeps on shooting poorly from beyond the arc and eventually decides to switch game plan and attack the hoop, they will find difficult rim-protectors to deal with.
That being said, it's highly unlikely to see players like Davis Bertans and Rodions Kurucs not coming up with the right solutions in consecutive games.
Stats don't lie
Equality could be the way to describe the upcoming matchup, at least when it comes to talking about statistics.
Latvia and Cameroon indeed share the same numbers on rebounds at 36.5, turnovers 10.0, steals 7.0 and personal fouls 21.0 per game.
Shooting-wise, the two teams are basically scoring with the same percentages from beyond the arc - Latvia 31.0% on 71 attempts, Cameroon 31.8% on 66 attempts.
But there's more of a difference from two-point range, since Latvia has shot 56.5%, while Cameroon is behind with 50.8%.
Past matchups
This will be the first matchup in history between Latvia and Cameroon.
With the Baltic side getting to its first FIBA Basketball World Cup only in 2023 and the Africans who have never managed to qualify for such a competition thus far, it's easy to understand why they've never crossed paths on the big stage previously.
They said
"We're still high on our victory. We will think about it. We want to celebrate this one and go back to work, we will see how we can prepare to face up to Latvia." Cameroon head coach, Alfred Aboya
"The Philippines had an excellent performance from the very beginning. They were very sharp, imposed their physicality, and found good solutions in the offense. That was a good lesson for us." Latvia head coach, Luca Banchi
FIBA