Italian coach proud of Kazakhstan's tough stand against China

MANILA, Philippines – Despite a heartbreaking 67-73 loss to China, Kazakhstan coach Matteo Boniciolli is proud of their performance at the start of the second round of the 27th FIBA Asia championships at MOA Arena in Pasay city Monday night.

“We had two goals in this game -  the first is to win and we were close to doing it because our players respected the game plan, the second was establish ourselves as team that can play with the best in Asia,” said Kazakhstan coach Matteo Boniciolli.

Kazakhstan came close in their first objective when they took a 63-62 lead with 3:12 remaining in the final quarter but lost steam in the end with China leaning on their experience to take the win.

“Even though we lost, I think we gained respect here today.  We are not here for a vacation. Playing against great players, a legendary coach and a great program, we still played well,” said Boniciolli.

Boniciolli is all praises for China who played minus former NBA player and premier bigman Yi Jianlian who is nursing a hamstring and groin injury.

“Congratulations to China they deserve to win for being more focused than us in the last two minutes," said Boniciolli. After we took the lead they showed great qualities and coaching."