By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Only five teams (Montenegro, Russia, Hungary, Belgium and Slovenia) remain perfect after the third Round of the Eurobasket 2017 qualifiers.
Some other countries managed to grab their first victories while others now have to recover from a 0 – 3 deficit.
Group A
Cyprus took a big 76 – 80 road victory against Switzerland with naturalized Anthony King scoring 21 points and grabbing 9 rebounds. The hosts (David Ramseier 22 points, 7 rebounds) failed to deliver in the fourth quarter which they lost 16 – 24.
With a pretty balanced game on both ends, Belgium (Maxime De Zeeuw 20 points, 9 rebounds) made its intentions clear vs Iceland (Hlynur Baeringsson 10 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds), winning 80 – 65.
Standings
Belgium 3 – 0
Iceland 2 – 1
Cyprus 1 – 2
Switzerland 0 – 3
Group B
With the forceful duo of Charlon Kloof (22 points, 8 rebounds) and Nicolas De Jong (20 points) contributing more than half of their team’s total score, the Netherlands stunned Germany 75 – 71 in Oberhausen.
Neither the efforts of Paul Zipser (14 points) or Maodo Lo (13 points, 8 assists) were enough for the game’s hosts, that found themselves trailing during the vast majority of the match.
The double-double of Rasid Mahalbasic helped Austria to a 86 – 66 win against Denmark, a result that perhaps came even more easier than what the final score shows. Alan Voskul’s game (20 points, 6 assists, 6 rebounds) was one of the few highlights of the “Vikings”.
Standings
Germany 2 – 1
Austria 2 – 1
The Netherlands 2 – 1
Denmark 0 – 3
Group C
In Uppsala, Sweden tried to fight back against a much superior Russian national team, especially in the second half, but ultimately fell 73 – 85. Andrei Vorontsevich was almost perfect (2o points with 8/9 shots, 5 rebounds and 4 assists) while Dmitry Khostov (16 points, 5 assists) and Dmitry Kulagin (15 points) gave a big helping hand to their team.
Nicolas Spires (16 points) and Alexander Lindqvist (15 points, 5 rebounds) stood out from the Swedish side.
Standings
Russia 2 – 0
Bosnia 1 – 1
Sweden 0 – 2
Bosnia had the day off
Group D
First positive result for Belarus in the qualifiers, since it defeated Portugal 72 – 62 behind 16 points plus 10 rebounds by Artsiom Parakhouski. Joao Gomes was once again the top performer for Portugal with 21 points and 11 rebounds.
No problem for Poland and Maciej Lampe (17 points, 11 rebounds) that downed Estonia (Kristjan Kitsing 15 points, 5 rebounds) 78 – 64 in front of their home crowd.
Standings
Poland 3 – 0
Estonia 2 – 1
Belarus 1 – 2
Portugal 0 – 3
Group E
Bulgaria clinched its first victory in the qualification games, overpowering Kosovo 105 – 84. With a top notch all-around output Sasha Vezenkov (18 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 5 steals) won the… unofficial “battle of the Blaugrana” against his Barcelona teammate Justin Doellman (16 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists).
Zoran Dragic (28 points, 8 rebounds) was absolutely brilliant, pacing Slovenia to a 84 – 77 victory vs Ukraine and the 3/3 in the qualifiers. The winning squad always held a relative control over their opponents who had Denys Lukashov (14 points, 5 assists) as their top scorer and performer.
Standings
Slovenia 3 – 0
Ukraine 2 – 1
Bulgaria 1 – 2
Kosovo 0 – 3
Group F
Thanks to Nikola Vucevic registering a double-double of 17 points and 11 rebounds and Nemanja Djurisic (7 points) scoring the game-winning basket with eight seconds to go, Montenegro took a highly important 76 – 74 road win vs Georgia and now has a 3-0 records in Group F.
Captain Zaza Pachulia finished the match with 22 points and 9 rebounds for Georgia but got fouled out two minutes before the end of the match. Tornike Shengelia had 13 points plus 9 rebounds with Viktor Sanikidze adding 10 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.
Slovakia broke its first smile in the qualifiers after a 0-2 start, beating Albania 69 – 60, with a particularly strong third quarter (25-11). Richard Korner led the winners with 20 points plus 10 rebounds and Endrit Hysenagoli had 17 points plus 8 rebounds for Albania.
Standings
Montenegro 3 – 0
Georgia 2 – 1
Slovakia 1 – 2
Albania 0 – 3
Group G
Great Britain really got its engines running at full speed in the second half scoring 33 points in the third quarter to ultimately defeat Luxemburg 95 – 72. Kyle Johnson scored 14 points and grabbed 10 rebounds while Andrew Lawrence added 13 plus 5 assists. Only Alex Laurent (30 points, 6 rebounds) scored in double digits for Luxemburg.
By passing victorious from Kavadarci, Hungary stayed perfect in the Group, after winning FYROM 76 – 66. A superb match by David Vojvoda with 27 points and 7 rebounds while Adam Hanga was, naturally, everywhere scoring 15 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists (also making up for his 0/7 from downtown).
The hosts had a negative (12/16) assist/turnover ratio and never managed to find a balance in their game. Vojdan Stojanovski had 16 points, while Romeo Travis delivered a double-double of 12 points and as much rebounds.
Standings
Hungary 3 – 0
Great Britain 2 – 1
FYROM 1 – 2
Luxemburg 0 – 3