The Armenia U18 women’s basketball team is going to compete against Malta’s team in the semifinals of the European Championship Division C. In a conversation with the ANOC press service the team’s head coach, Vahagn Harutyunyan, spoke about the group stage, the team’s play style and the upcoming semifinals.

-Mr, Harutyunyan, how was the team playing, taking into account that it has 4 newcomers?

-With every game the players understand each other better. We speak the same language, the basketball language. Our three players are from Russia, they are from the same school and in some way they have the same play style.

-Speaking about the previous two games (Andorra, Wales) which you won with a great advantage, what kind of opponents were they for us?

-Andorra’s players were short though they played fast. We have an advantage over them due to our height and techniques and it wasn’t difficult to win them. In the first quarter of the game with Wales we approached the game with less seriousness but in the second quarter we showed a high-level play. To tell the truth we knew about our advantage in the both games.

-You are going to compete against Malta in the semifinals. Have you played with them and what kind of opponent are they?

-Yew, we have, we have played against Malta and again in the semifinals. The game was rather tough for us but we won by 8 points. We are familiar with Malta’s play style from the previous championship. We are going to do our best to qualify for the final.

-The next pair of the semifinals is Andorra and Georgia. Who is the favorite, in your opinion?

-I won’t do any prediction but they obviously play a different type and style basketball. Andorra plays rather quickly and nicely in defense. As for Georgia it hasn’t got the same chances as Armenia. It’s going to be hard for them.

-Thank you and I wish you good luck.

ANOC press service