NICOSIA (Cyprus) - Mario Hezonja put together one of the best performances of his career, flirting with a triple-double as he scored 40 points to close off the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers.
Hezonja became the fourth player to score at least 40 points in this qualifying campaign while also grabbing 11 rebounds and dishing out 7 assists for an efficiency of 47 in Croatia's 104-67 win at Cyprus.
The Real Madrid star's outstanding performance came two days after he scored 37 points to go with 11 rebounds in a heart-breaking 83-80 loss to France which ended Croatia's EuroBasket hopes.
Hezonja matched the 40 points that Bulgaria star Sasha Vezenkov scored earlier in the window against Sweden.
It was the second-highest mark by a Croatian player in a national team jersey, only behind the legendary Drazen Petrovic, who put up 48 points in the Qualifiers for FIBA EuroBasket 1993.
The competition-high for the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers is 43 points - achieved by Germany's David Kramer against Sweden and Nenad Dimitrijevic versus Lithuania - both in the November 2024 window.
The Croatian star nearly evened Vezenkov's single-game high in efficiency of 49 in the win over Sweden.
Hezonja ended the Qualifiers with 29.8 points in five games to go with 8.6 rebounds and 3.6 assists for an efficiency of 30.2.
FIBA