By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
With Luka Doncic posting a fifth triple-double in EuroBasket history, Slovenia led through all but 44 early seconds, mostly by a large margin, en route to an 86-69 victory versus Belgium in Katowice’s Spodek Arena.
The Slovenian superstar was close in his previous outing in EuroBasket 2025, but got the job done midway through the fourth quarter on Sunday, before sitting on the bench over the last few minutes. The 26-year-old combo guard of the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA produced 26 points, 11 assists, and ten rebounds. Logging 30 minutes, he also put in three steals.
Off to a 0/4 start, the native of Ljubljana settled at 9/23 from the field, including 2/11 from beyond the arc, and also recorded four turnovers. Countering shooting woes, his trademark creativity was key in keeping the senior national team of his country in control in a more or less must-win situation.
After falling to 0-2, the team coached by Aleksander Sekulic matched Belgium at 1-2 in the Group D standings and secured a tiebreaker advantage on Sunday, strengthening the bid for a ticket to the knockout stage of the tournament. On the wrong side of the Gameday 3 affair, 30-year-old big Andy Van Vliet tallied a team-high 15 points.
At the bottom end of the five-game round-robin schedule to decide four advancing countries, Slovenia continues versus Iceland on Tuesday and Israel on Thursday. Also, the Lions are up against Israel and host Poland, respectively.
Photo Credit: FIBA