By Niki Bakouli/ bakouli@eurohoops.net
Ukraine turned out to be the surprise success story of Eurobasket 2013, after beating Italy 66-58 and getting the ticket for next year’s FIBA World Cup. It’s the biggest achievement in the basketball history of Ukraine after the dissolution of USSR with an American coach, Mike Fratello, and a naturalized point guard, Eugene “Pooh” Jeter who scored 20 points and dished four assists, being its leaders.
Ukraine will face Slovenia in the game that will decide the final classification in the fifth and the sixth place of the competition, but that’s just a footnote. On the contrary Italy will face Serbia in the seventh place game, in which the winner will conquer the last remaining ticket for the World Cup. Spurs Marco Belinelli had a bad game with 7 points and 2/19 shots, however Italy has the best of excuses for this game, as it was played just after 14 hours from their quarterfinal clash with Croatia.