By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The first day of the Eurobasket 2017 qualifiers began and the favorites had no problems defeating their opponents, most of them with notable ease.
Thanks to a powerful second half (27-10 after the third quarter and 22-9 in the fourth) Russia dominated a Teletovic-less Bosnia 83 – 54 in the first match for the Eurobasket 2017 qualification games.
Dmitry Kulagin scored 17 points and grabbed 7 rebounds, while Timofey Mozgov added 14 points. Jusuf Nurkic was, naturally, the best among the Bosnian players with a double-double of 19 points and 15 rebounds.
Georgia faced no difficulties against Albania winning 86 – 47 behind 20 points and 7 rebounds by Viktor Sanikidze. Zaza Pachulia had problems connecting with the basket (6 points with 1/7 from the field) but contributed 8 rebounds and 6 assists.
Only Endrit Hysenagoli (15 points) scored in double digits for Albania.
A fantastic Adam Hanga (32 points, 6/9 three-pointers, 7 rebounds, 4 assists) led Hungary to a rather comfortable victory 96 – 77 over Great Britain. David Vojvoda also dropped 24 points and dished 5 assists.
Daniel Clark and Andrew Lawrence scored 22 points each for the losing side. Ben Gordon offered 8 assists and 5 rebounds yet struggled to make buckets (2 points, 0/8 field goals).
Not much to see in the match between Cyprus and Belgium where the latter grabbed a 65 – 46 win. Maxime De Zeeuw was the winner’s top performer with 12 points plus 6 assists.
Cyprus shot with an extremely poor 20% from the field and had Aristides Koronides scoring 13 points.
With Kyrylo Fesenko (15 points, 10 rebounds) and Vyacheslav Kravtsov (13 points, 6 rebounds) imposing their rule inside the paint, Ukraine defeated Bulgaria more easily than what the final 79 – 69 implies.
The star players of the Bulgarian team like Sasa Vezenkov (9 points, 3/10 shots) and Dee Bost (4 point, 1/6 shots) were not in a really good shape. Chavdar Kostov (16 points) and Aleksandr Georgiev (15 points, 6 rebounds) stood out among their teammates.
Rain Veideman was unstoppable (32 points, 7 assists) as Estonia easily beat Belarus (Artsiom Parakhouski 14 points) 81 – 62.
By scoring 17 points each, Paul Zipser and Maodo Lo led Germany to a 101 – 74 win vs Denmark. Jonathan Gilling had 18 points for the “vikings”.
Slovenia‘s superiority made short work of Kosovo with a 106 – 66 victory. The Dragic bros were superb for their team, with Goran dropping 22 points (behind 10/11 shooting) and dishing 8 assists, while Zoran added 17 plus 5 rebounds. Alen Omic scored 18 points and grabbed 5 rebounds.
Justin Doellman‘s performance (7 points with 3/11 from the field) was obviously not what he expected in his debut with the Kosovar national team. Dardan Berisha scored 21 points.
The excellent game of Anton Maresch (31 points, 11/12 shooting, 5 rebounds) made a difference, helping Austria beat the Netherlands (Worthy De Jong 24 points) 77 – 72.
Poland shot the ball with 70% on its way to defeating Portugal 83 – 57. Mateusz Ponitka scored 14 points and grabbed 6 rebounds for his team, while the Portuguese had Joao Gomes (18 points) as their top scorer.
After a 30-13 entrance in the match, FYROM‘s job against Luxemburg became comfortable enough to lead in a 89 – 75 win. Vojdan Stojanovski finished the game with 28 points and 5 rebounds for the winning side and Laurent had 18 for Luxemburg.
Vladimir Dasic scored 17 points and grabbed 9 rebounds, Marko Todorovic registered a double-double (13 points, 10 rebounds) while Nikola Vucevic had 12 plus 6 rebounds in 19 minutes, as Montenegro cruised 97 – 65 against Slovak Republic (Michal Batka 14 points, 8 rebounds).
With no less than six players scoring in double digits, Iceland (Hordour Vilhjalmsson 16 points, 8 rebounds) entered the qualification games by outplaying Switzerland (Marko Mladjan 19 points) 88 – 72.