Montenegro and Slovenia reach EuroBasket, BiH wait, Macedonia out

Wednesday, 14. September 2016 at 22:53

Montenegro and Slovenia have secured themselves an EuroBasket 2017 ticket a round before the end of the qualifiers, with wins against Albania and Bulgaria, respectively. BiH beat Sweden and wait for the development in the last round, while Macedonia are already out of the race after losing to Great Britain.

Montenegro and Slovenia have secured themselves an EuroBasket 2017 ticket a round before the end of the qualifiers, with wins against Albania and Bulgaria, respectively. BiH beat Sweden and wait for the development in the last round, while Macedonia are already out of the race after losing to Great Britain.

Montenegro have reached the EuroBasket 2017 tournament by keeping the perfect record after 5 games played, after beating Albania at home in Bar with a huge margin of 94:56. Montenegrins still haven"t secured themselves the first place in their group, but even if they fail to clinch it in the final round, they will travel to the tournament as one of the four best second-placed teams. This time Vladimir Mihailović was the top scorer for Montenegro with 13 points, while Nikola Vučević added 12.

Slovenia, in Group E, are in completely similar situation as Montenegro in Group F, occupying first place with a perfect record after beating Bulgaria 85:63 at home in Stožice. Slovenians created themselves a decisive margin in the third quarter, when they prevailed 35:6 in the period of 10 minutes and have triumphed convincingly. Goran Dragić was the best scorer of his team with 17 points and Gašper Vidmar added 12.

Bosnia and Herzegovina have secured themselves second place in the Group C by beating Sweden for the second time, this time in Stockholm with the score of 78:76. Jusuf Nurkić topped the scorers" list with 21 points, while Miralem Halilović put in 18. This ends BiH"s EuroBasket2017 Qualifiers campaign, but they will have to wait one round more to be played in the other groups in order to find out whether they are going to be amongst the passengers to the big tournament next year.

Macedonia, on the other hand, have lost their chances of qualifying for the EuroBasket 2017 tournament with the second qualifiers loss to Great Britain (89:62 at home). The last quarter was decisive, when Great Britain pulled away with a 13-point partial score in their favour. 17 points by Kiril Nikolovski and 15 by Vojdan Stojanovski were not enough to seal Macedonia a valuable win.

EuroBasket 2017 Qualifyers, Round 5, Group C, Wednesday, 14.9.2016:

Sweden - BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA 76:78 (16:14, 19:23, 23:23, 18:18)

Borg and Massamba 14; Nurkić 21, Halilović 18.

Group E:

SLOVENIA - Bulgaria 85:63 (16:21, 18:8, 35:6, 16:28)

G. Dragić 17, Vidmar 12; Washburn 18, Lilov 11.

Group F:

MONTENEGRO - Albania 94:56 (26:16, 20:11, 24:18, 24:11)

Mihailović 13, Vučević 12; Shima 24, Vogli 10.

Group G:

Macedonia - GREAT BRITAIN 62:89 (14:21, 16:23, 23:23, 9:22)
Nikolovski 17, V. Stojanovski 15; Clark 21, Lawrence 14.

STANDINGS:

Group C:

TEAM
WON
LOST
POINTS
Russia 3 0 6
BiH 2 2 6
Sweden 0 3 3

Group E:

TEAM WON
LOST
POINTS
Slovenia 5 0 10
Ukraine 4 1 9
Bulgaria 1 4
6
Kosovo 0 5 5

Group F:

TEAM WON
LOST
POINTS
Montenegro 5 0 10
Georgia 4 1 9
Slovakia 1 4 6
Albania 0 5 5

Group G:

TEAM WON
LOST
POINTS
Hungary 5 0 10
Great Britain
3 2 8
Macedonia
2 3 7
Luxembourg
0 5 5

(Photo: FIBA)

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