With a deficit of just two points, Finland narrowly missed a chance to advance to the second round of the men’s basketball World Cup in Spain.

The team had qualified as a wild card for its first-ever appearance in the FIBA men’s World Cup.

On Thursday afternoon the ‘wolf pack’ went down to defeat at the hands of New Zealand, after a similarly narrow loss to Turkey the day before.

On Wednesday Turkey tied the game with seconds remaining at the end of normal time, before winning in overtime. Still the Finns could have gone through with a win against the Kiwis.

Clawing back

After Thursday’s 67-65 (44-32) loss to New Zealand, Finland ended up last in its group, having only won over Ukraine.

Yet the Wolves did not go down without a fight, nearly recovering from a 22-point deficit. Finland was just two points behind four seconds before the end of the game when star Petteri Koponen’s try for a final basket failed under intense pressure from the "Tall Blacks" defence.

Strong Finnish-Americans

In the third quarter they were still 20 points behind, but managed to shrink the gap to 12 points.

In the final quarter, the team was led by Gerald Lee Jr – whose American father Gerald Lee Sr also played on the Finnish national team. He played his best game of the tournament, scoring 17 points.

Koponen netted 13 points. Finland’s third-highest scorer with 10 points was Shawn Huff, yet another Finnish-American player whose father had worn the blue-and-white uniform. New Zealand’s top scorer was Isaac Fotu, with 18 points to his credit.