The Netherlands came out to finish the tournament with a confidence building victory in the battle for seventh and eighth position on the closing day of the 2019 Men’s European Championship in Wałbrzych, Poland.

The Netherlands opened up a substantial lead, 33-14 by the end of the first quarter, with their defensive pressure proving too much for France as they turned the ball over numerous times.

Dutch Head Coach Cees Van Rootselaar took the chance to rotate his team in the second quarter which helped France get into the game more, but it was still the Netherlands who took the quarter 18-13 to give themselves a twenty-four point advantage at half-time, 51-27.

Alexis Ramonet, France’s lead scorer for the tournament, came off with an injury just before half-time and was not suited up for the second half.

Rootselaar went back to his starting line-up at the start of the third and the press again caused France problems, winning the quarter 19-9. The Netherlands continued to dominate in the fourth and ran away with the game and a big victory, 95-46.

The Netherlands finished with four players in double digits, Gijs Even top scoring with 21 points off just 16 minutes on the floor. For France, Abdelghanée Boughania led their attack with 11 points.

The game was Anton De Rooij’s last international appearance for the Netherlands as he retires from international basketball after a 30-year career and 759 appearances for his country.

De Rooij said after the game:

“It’s always nice to win, but it was made even more special as it was my last game and to end on a win makes it even more enjoyable. I’ve had a beautiful career and for me I think it’s enough.

“We are disappointed with our results for the tournament as we wanted Tokyo. I will now concentrate on being a full-time assistant coach. We have a lot of young guys in the programme so for the future we look good, and we hope to get to the next Paralympics in 2024, so that’s what we’ll go away and work on going forward.”