Poland silence capacity crowd in Croatia; only two unbeaten teams left
MUNICH (Germany) - Croatia hosted Poland with a match point on their serve to win the game, but the only Croat celebrating a win in Zagreb was Poland's head coach Igor Milicic, stealing the tiebreaker.
MUNICH (Germany) - Croatia hosted Poland with a match point on their serve to win the game, but the only Croat celebrating a win in Zagreb was Poland's head coach Igor Milicic, stealing the tiebreaker on the road in his homeland.
Croatia had a three-point win from their first matchup, and the second game was in the balance for the most of it. The score was +1 Poland with seven minutes left, which allowed the three-point specialist Jakub Garbacz to do his thing - back-to-back threes started a 19-5 run over the next five minutes.
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Garbacz hit another one as the gap ballooned to 85-70 heading into the final two minutes, but Croatia did not back away. A quick 9-0 sprint made it just -3 on aggregate, and the hosts had one last shot to get to the three-point margin and claim the tiebreaker. Toni Perkovic had a wide open look from the corner. It did not drop, Poland secured an 87-79 win to overtake Croatia in the standings.
Garbacz hit five threes en route to 21 points, and Jaroslaw Zyskowski added the same amount off the bench. Croatia got 17 points and 4 blocks from Danko Brankovic, but they fall to second spot with two games left to play.
In the other group game, Switzerland defeated Austria 75-65 on the road with Anthony Polite scoring a game-high 21 points.
Group E
8/12 games played
GAMES | GAME POINTS | POINTS | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
# | Team | P | W | L | % | For | Agt | +/- | FA | AA | |
1 | Poland | 4 | 3 | 1 | 75.0 | 326 | 270 | 56 | 81.5 | 67.5 | 7 |
2 | Croatia | 4 | 3 | 1 | 75.0 | 335 | 284 | 51 | 83.8 | 71 | 7 |
3 | Switzerland | 4 | 2 | 2 | 50.0 | 266 | 292 | -26 | 66.5 | 73 | 6 |
4 | Austria | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 259 | 340 | -81 | 64.8 | 85 | 4 |
With Poland handing Croatia their first defeat, only two teams are still perfect in the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Pre-Qualifiers. North Macedonia had their record seriously tested by Denmark, but found a new hero in a 74-71 overtime win at home.
TJ Shorts first made the two-pointer to send the game to overtime, and then with his side trailing 70-68 with 90 seconds left in the extra period, Telekom Baskets Bonn's point guard went off once more, getting six straight points to send the crowd into a frenzy.
Shorts finished with 33 points, 6 assists and 5 steals, Stojan Gjuroski had 11, Vojdan Stojanovski 10, they were the only other players in double digits. Adama Darbo flirted with a triple-double with 21 points, 10 assists and 7 boards, but Denmark drop to 0-4.
Group D
8/12 games played
GAMES | GAME POINTS | POINTS | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
# | Team | P | W | L | % | For | Agt | +/- | FA | AA | |
1 | North Macedonia | 4 | 4 | 0 | 100 | 284 | 252 | 32 | 71 | 63 | 8 |
2 | Norway | 4 | 2 | 2 | 50.0 | 278 | 269 | 9 | 69.5 | 67.2 | 6 |
3 | Slovakia | 4 | 2 | 2 | 50.0 | 285 | 292 | -7 | 71.2 | 73 | 6 |
4 | Denmark | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 286 | 320 | -34 | 71.5 | 80 | 4 |
In the other Group D game, Slovakia defeated Norway 68-56 on the road. However, the tiebreaker belongs to Norway, because they won the first matchup by 19.
Finally, in Group F, Portugal stormed to a comfy 92-62 win over Romania, protecting their perfect record in dominant fashion. All 12 players scored for coach Mario Gomes, led by Travante Williams' 20 points in 23 minutes of work.
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Bulgaria defeated Cyprus 75-66 in Nicosia, staying a win behind Portugal in the standings. The two leading teams will meet once more in Bulgaria in February, when the hosts have to chase a ten-point gap to take the tiebreaker and win the group, which would send them to the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers.
Group F
8/12 games played
GAMES | GAME POINTS | POINTS | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
# | Team | P | W | L | % | For | Agt | +/- | FA | AA | |
1 | Portugal | 4 | 4 | 0 | 100 | 357 | 268 | 89 | 89.2 | 67 | 8 |
2 | Bulgaria | 4 | 3 | 1 | 75.0 | 325 | 281 | 44 | 81.2 | 70.2 | 7 |
3 | Romania | 4 | 1 | 3 | 25.0 | 262 | 316 | -54 | 65.5 | 79 | 5 |
4 | Cyprus | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 255 | 334 | -79 | 63.8 | 83.5 | 4 |
The final window will take place in February, 2023 with the winners of each group still to be decided heading into the remaining games.
FIBA