By Michalis Gioulenoglou/ info@eurohoops.net
Limassol, Cyprus – After mishandling a 15-point lead, Bosnia-Herzegovina recovered to defeat Georgia, 84-76, in Spyros Kyprianou Arena.
In a do-or-die contest for a berth in the knockout stage of EuroBasket 2025, a 9-0 sprint broke a 71-71 tie and built a commanding lead down the stretch. Jusuf Nurkic posted a 15-point, 12-rebound double-double, including a bucket to open the winning scoring streak. Over 31 minutes, the Utah Jazz center added two assists and one block.
From three points in the first half, John Roberson ended up sharing a team-high 15 points. Aleksandar Lazic followed with 13 points. Edin Atic chipped in 11 points alongside seven rebounds, four assists, two blocks, and one steal. Adin Vrabac delivered a fifth double-digit contribution with ten points behind 4/5 field goals.
Entering Gameday 5 with identical 2-2 tallies, a third win for the team coached by Aziz Bekir secured a third win and a ticket to the Round of 16 as the third seed of Group C. Forced to 2-3, Georgia needs Greece to later beat Spain to advance as the fourth seed, but otherwise will be eliminated.
Backed by the majority of the crowd at Limassol, Bosnia-Herzegovina peaked at 15 points during the third period. They never trailed, but were tied at 69-69 after a 7-0 run with five straight points by Kamar Baldwin. A solid finish went into securing the highest EuroBasket ranking since 2013.
“We had our chances, especially at that moment when the result was 69-69. Then some things happened. After that, they controlled the game better than us,” said head coach Aleksandar Dzikic in the postgame press conference, “We are going to wait for the last game of today’s program to see what will happen, if we are going to Riga or not.”
For his side on Thursday, Sandro Mamukelashvili drew a game-high 20 points. Baldwin finished with 18 points.
Photo Credit: FIBA