By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Day 2 of the Eurobasket 2017 qualifiers is upon us and some quite interesting battles were in order.
Goran Dragic finished the first half scoreless but dropped 20 points in the third and fourth quarter propelling Slovenia to a 83 – 78 against a quite tough Bulgarian team.
The Miami Heats guard also dished 9 assists and grabbed 4 rebounds while Edo Muric was the top performer of Slovenia with 19 points and 8 rebounds. Sasa Vezenkov shined for Bulgaria with 22 points (4/9 from downtown) and 4 assists.
Iceland doubled its victories in the qualifiers by defeating Switzerland 75 – 64. Martin Hernmansson paced the winners with an all-around performances of 21 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists.
No player of Cyprus scored in double-digits, with Panagiotis Trissokas (8 points, 5 rebounds) standing out among his teammates.
Maciej Lampe fired at will (25 points with 10/13 field goals) as Poland took a comfortable 97 – 79 victory over Belarus. Vitaly Liutych’s (23 points) efforts weren’t enough for his team.
With a solid team effort, Belgium had no problem overpowering Switzerland 87 – 72. Four players of the “Lions” scored in double-digits, with Retin Obasohan providing the lot (18 points). Dusan Mladjan and David Ramseier had 15 points each for Switzerland.
Another cruising win for Georgia, this time against Slovakia 93 – 64 and another superb output by Tornike Shengelia (18 points, 9 rebounds). Mike Dixon added 16 points and 7 assists for coach Zouros’ team while Milan Ziak had 14 for the Slovaks.
Easy-peasy job for Hungary vs Luxemburg and a 89 – 64 victory behind 16 points and 7 assists by David Vojvoda. Once more, Laurent (18 points, 7 rebounds) was the best Luxemburg had to offer.
An exceptional 28 – 13 first quarter showed the way to Netherlands and helped them overpower Denmark 90 – 72. Once more Worthy De Jong led the Dutch with 15 points while Charlon Kloof threw 13 of his own.
Denmark’s top performer was Alan Voskuil with 16 points.
While Portugal fought hard to catch Estonia by surprise, it was ultimately downed 76 – 68 despite the dynamic output of Joao Gomes (26 points, 11 rebounds). Rain Veideman was the top scorer for Estonia with 16 points.
In the 15 minutes he stayed on court, Nikola Vucevic scored 19 points, grabbed 4 rebounds and dished 4 assists as Montenegro blew Albania away 113 – 73. Bojan Dubljevic was also a force to be reckoned with inside the paint with 16 points plus 7 rebounds.
Naturalized Rashad Broadus had 26 points for Albania.
With Eric Boateng (16 points, 5 rebounds) and Ben Gordon (17 points, 9 rebounds) as protagonists, Great Britain clinched its first victory in the qualifiers, winning FYROM 96 – 79.
Most players of FYROM were disappointing except the trio of Aleksandr Kostoski (16 points, 4 assists), Vojdan Stojanovski (16 points) and Romeo Travis (12 points, 4 assists).
2/2 for Ukraine (Maxym Kornienko 20 points, 4 rebounds) which forced Kosovo (Justin Doellman 20 points) to score only 11 points in the fourth quarter in order to defeat them 70 – 63.
Mirza Teletovic finally joined Bosnia that proceeded to beat Sweden 74 – 69. Jusuf Nurkic (19 points, 15 rebounds) and Dzanan Musa (19 points, 11 rebounds) registered double-doubles to pace the winners.
By scoring a game-winning basket for the 60 – 59 with 30 seconds to go, Robin Benzing saved Germany from facing a huge upset (final score 61 – 59) in the face of Austria. Danilo Barthel led his teammates with 12 points and 7 assists, while Rasid Mahalbasic had 18 plus 7 rebounds for the losing side.
(Photo by Slovenian Basketball Federation)