MUNICH (Germany) - The curtain fell on the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers, as the final 10 games were played on a busy Monday evening.
Only three teams remained perfect, while only two concluded their campaigns without a single win.
France outlast BIH in a thriller
It was an emotional couple of days for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and without Edin Atic and Dzanan Musa, they put up a fight on the road in France, testing France's perfect record to the final minutes of the Qualifiers.
However, Frederic Fauthoux's men prevailed, Yoan Makoundou stealing the spotlight with a big block, a big dunk and a big steal as part of a 9-0 run from 65-70 to 74-70 with 40 seconds to play.
BIH did tie the game at 74-all with 14 seconds to play, but Elie Okobo timed the final shot to perfection, beating the buzzer with his trademark lefty midrange shot, pushing France to 76-74 and effectively to 6-0.
France thus joined Latvia and Serbia as the only unbeaten teams of the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers.
In the other game in this group, Croatia picked up a big win over Cyprus, with Mario Hezonja setting the second-best single game scoring mark for the national team.
He went for 40 points, joining Drazen Petrovic (48 vs Estonia in 1993) as the only other Croatian player with 40 or more in an official basketball game.
Serbian defense gets the job done
Georgia coach Aleksandar Dzikic had a masterplan how to stop the Serbians from scoring, and without his biggest stars in Tornike Shengelia, Giorgi Shermadini and Kamar Baldwin, he managed to hold Serbia to less than 65 points.
The problem is, Svetislav Pesic had a similar plan the other way, claiming a 63-54 win in Belgrade.
Aleksa Avramovic was the only Serbian player in double digits with 14 points in just 15 minutes of work, good enough to send Serbia to 6-0.
Also in Group G, Kevin Larsen's near perfect night of 22 points, 11 rebounds and an efficiency rating of 30 was not enough for Denmark to sign out with a win. Finland topped them 83-77 thanks to Olivier Nkamhoua's 26 points and 8 boards.
# | TEAM | GP | W | L | +/- | POINTS |
1 | 6 | 6 | 0 | +115 | 12 | |
2 | 6 | 3 | 3 | -2 | 9 | |
3 | 6 | 2 | 4 | -40 | 8 | |
4 | 6 | 1 | 5 | -73 | 7 |
Serbia, Georgia and Finland (qualified as hosts) now await the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 draw.
Kuzminskas bids farewell
A true legend of European basketball, Mindaugas Kuzminskas played his last game with the national team. The greatest highlights of his Lithuania days are certainly back-to-back FIBA EuroBasket Finals in 2013 and 2015, and he left the national team in style, getting an 82-75 win over Estonia to finish top of the Group H.
The 35-year-old is still active on club level, playing with AEK Betsson BC in the Greek League and the Basketball Champions League. He had 6 points in 14 minutes of action in his final game for Lithuania, earning a standing ovation upon the final buzzer.
North Macedonia finished third in this group, but will not be in the main draw, as fourth-placed Poland are one of the four hosts of the event. TJ Shorts II kept the home crowd singing all night long, scoring 23 points with 5 assists to give MKD an 88-74 win over Poland.
Ukraine get first win
In Group A, Israel defeated Slovenia's youngsters 84-74, winning the group at 5-1, ahead of the 4-2 Slovenia. Portugal knew they were also through with two wins, but it was all about Ukraine in Matosinhos on the day.
Ainars Bagatskis' players picked up a gigantic 88-60 win in Portugal, Vyacheslav Bobrov leading the way with 16 points to propel Ukraine to their first win of the campaign. With this result, Slovakia and Cyprus remain the only two teams without a win across all six games.
Greece top Group F
Finally, in Group F, the hosts had a pair of smooth games to finish off their runs in the Qualifiers. Greece defeated the Netherlands 63-53, Giannoulis Larentzakis and Vasileios Toliopoulos combining for 25 points on the day, but their 20-year-old teammate deserves a mention too.
Vangelis Zougris had 9 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals, filling the boxscore the same way he did at the FIBA U20 EuroBasket 2024, when he made the All-Star Five.
Great Britain defeated Czechia 96-75, knocking down 13 three-pointers on 43 percent shooting from deep. Jubrile Belo-Osagie was hot off the bench, a game-high 21 points in just 24 minutes of work.
FIBA