The group stage came to an end for half of the teams at EuroBasket 2022 on Wednesday with four teams heading home.
EuroBasket: Lithuania, Belgium, Montenegro advance
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Group A: Spain finishes in first place, Belgium and Montenegro advance
Spain outlasted Turkey 69-72 in Tbilisi, Georgia, to finish atop Group A. It will meet Lithuania in the Round of 16 on Saturday. Willy Hernangomez paced the winners with 15 points and 7 rebounds and Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv point guard Lorenzo Brown tallied 11 points and 7 assists. It was a back-and-forth contest that featured 15 lead changes. Turkey led 65-64 on a Furkan Korkmaz layup with 2 and a half minutes remaining, but Brown and Valencia Basket guard Xabi Lopez-Arostegui combined for the next 5 points as Spain held on. Cedi Osman led Turkey with 20 points and Korkmaz added 16.
Belgium punched its ticket to the Round of 16 with an 80-89 victory over Bulgaria, which ended the latter’s participation in the tournament. Bulgaria was down 11 at halftime and stormed back in the third quarter, but Belgium regained control, 60-66, by the end of the third and held on in the fourth despite the best efforts of the Bulgarians. LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne guard Retin Obasohan led the Belgian attack with 25 points and Emmanuel Lecomte contributed 20. All-EuroLeague forward Sasha Vezenkov of Olympiacos Piraeus produced 26 points and 13 rebounds for Bulgaria in defeat.
Montenegro claimed the fourth and final ticket to Berlin from Group A by beating 73-81 host Georgia 73-81 in the last game of the tournament in Tbilisi. Montenegro, which never trailed in the second half, enjoyed a game-high 22 points from Buducnost VOLI Podgorica guard Igor Drobnjak and 17 points and 9 assists from Kendrick Perry. Thaddus McFadden paced Georgia with 15 points and Sandro Mamukelashvili posted 15 points and 10 rebounds in defeat. Montenegro finished third in the group with a 3-2 record. Georgia was last at 1-4.
Group B: Slovenia is first, Lithuania qualifies for Round of 16
Lithuania eliminated Bosnia and Herzegovina with an 87-70 victory in their win-or-go-home clash at Cologne Arena, home of the 2021 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four. Both teams finished the group stage with 2-3 records, but Lithuania advanced to the Round of 16 by virtue of the head-to-head result. Lithuania will face Spain in the next stage on Saturday. Panathinaikos Athens sharpshooter Marius Grigonis paced the Lithuanian attack with 16 points. Zalgiris Kaunas teammates Arnas Butkevicius and Ignas Brazdeikis added 13 points apiece as did center Jonas Valanciunas, who also collected 15 rebounds. Dzanan Musa of Real Madrid led Bosnia with 22 points. Lithuania led throughout the second half with the margin peaking at 22 midway through the third quarter. Bosnia rallied late, but the outcome was never in danger.
Slovenia topped Group B after defeating France 82-88 behind a monster game from former EuroLeague MVP Luka Doncic, who racked up 47 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists. However, with the game on the line in the closing minutes, it was Goran Dragic who rose up. Dragic made 2 steals for layups that were sandwiched around an assist accounting for all the points in the final 90 seconds, breaking open a game that was tied 82-82. Slovenia improved to 4-1 and France fell to 3-2. Rudy Gobert scored 19 to lead France, Anadolu Efes Istanbul forward Amath M’Baye contributed 13 points and 5 assists and Elie Okobo of AS Monaco added 11 points.
Germany wrapped up action in Group B with a 71-106 triumph over Hungary. Germany outscored its opponents in all four quarters, including by 12 in both the second and fourth quarters. Christian Sengfelder led the winners with 22 points, ALBA Berlin guard Maodo Lo scored 21 and former ALBA captain Niels Giffey added 19, while EA7 Emporio Armani Milan big man Johannes Voigtmann brought down 10 rebounds. Zoltan Perl scored 15 for Hungary, which bowed out of the tournament winless in five games.