After the early qualification for the 2023 World Cup, the German basketball players ended their special year with a defeat.
In the final international match in 2022, the bronze medalist in Koper lost 75:81 (34:41) to hosts Slovenia.
It was the third last World Cup elimination game for the team of national coach Gordon Herbert.
"I'm very happy with the way we fought in the end.
But Slovenia had good shooters, with whom we had a lot of trouble," said Herbert at MagentaSport.
Forward Lukas Wank from the Frankfurt Skyliners said: "Maybe we were a bit tired.
But we just weren't ready to deliver over 40 minutes."
Without the majority of their European Championship heroes, the selection of the German Basketball Federation (DBB) had their ticket for the finals in Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines (25 August to 10 August) on Friday in Bamberg with a win over Finland (94:80). September 2023) solved.
The defeat in Slovenia was only the second in ten qualifiers.
The last international window of World Cup qualifying is scheduled for the end of February.
The German team mostly ran behind a sometimes significant deficit on Monday.
Less than four minutes before the end of the game, the DBB team was 18 points behind (59:77), but came close again dangerously with a 14:0 run.
The DBB team defeated Slovenia around NBA star Luka Doncic, who of course was also absent on Monday, in the first leg in Munich shortly before the EuroBasket, but lost out in the preliminary round of the tournament.
In group J, the Slovenians got the last open ticket after Germany and Finland.
Braunschweig's David Krämer (21 points) was the guests' best thrower in Koper, while the native American Jordan Morgan scored 22 points and also delivered 13 rebounds for the Slovenians.