By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Kristaps Porzingis scored 29 points on 9-12 shots, including four key ones during crunch time, and grabbed 14 rebounds as Latvia beat Great Britain 87 – 80 on the road to improve to 6-1 in Group I of the 2023 World Cup Qualifiers. The British dropped to 1-5.
Porzingis made a pair of free throws to put Latvia up 78 – 83 with 1:28 left and then threw down a monster dunk to give his team an 80 -85 while 30 seconds were left in regulation. Rodions Kurucs then hit a layup to seal the victory for the visiting side.
Myles Hesson (15 points, eight rebounds, eight assists) and Gabe Olaseni (14 points, six rebounds) stood out from Great Britain. Rihards Lomazs contributed 16 points to Latvia’s win.
In the other games of Day 4 of August’s World Cup Qualifiers, Finland became the European national team to advance after a combination of results. The “Sujijengi” beat Estonia 76 – 68 behind Sasu Salin’s 20 points and then booked their World Cup ticket following Germany’s 90 – 70 victory over Slovenia and Sweden’s 93-83 road win vs. Israel.
Also, Greece and Serbia were the big winners of the night over Belgium (85-68) and Turkey (79-72) respectively. The FIBA World Cup qualifiers continue in November.
Group I
| GAMES | STREAK | GAME POINTS | POINTS | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Team | P | W | L | % | Last 5 | For | Agt | +/- | FA | AA | |
| 1 |  Latvia |
6 | 5 | 1 | 83.3 |
|
498 | 453 | 45 | 83 | 75.5 | 11 |
| 2 |  Greece |
6 | 4 | 2 | 66.7 |
|
489 | 455 | 34 | 81.5 | 75.8 | 10 |
| 3 |  Belgium |
6 | 3 | 3 | 50.0 |
|
415 | 418 | -3 | 69.2 | 69.7 | 9 |
| 4 |  Serbia |
6 | 3 | 3 | 50.0 |
|
481 | 479 | 2 | 80.2 | 79.8 | 9 |
| 5 |  Turkey |
6 | 2 | 4 | 33.3 |
|
464 | 476 | -12 | 77.3 | 79.3 | 8 |
| 6 |  Great Britain |
6 | 1 | 5 | 16.7 |
|
424 | 490 | -66 | 70.7 | 81.7 | 7 |
Group J
| GAMES | STREAK | GAME POINTS | POINTS | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Team | P | W | L | % | Last 5 | For | Agt | +/- | FA | AA | |
| 1 |  Germany |
8 | 7 | 1 | 87.5 |
|
631 | 546 | 85 | 78.9 | 68.2 | 15 |
| 2 |  Finland |
8 | 7 | 1 | 87.5 |
|
629 | 587 | 42 | 78.6 | 73.4 | 15 |
| 3 |  Slovenia |
8 | 5 | 3 | 62.5 |
|
681 | 655 | 26 | 85.1 | 81.9 | 13 |
| 4 |  Sweden |
8 | 3 | 5 | 37.5 |
|
624 | 644 | -20 | 78 | 80.5 | 11 |
| 5 |  Israel |
8 | 3 | 5 | 37.5 |
|
632 | 626 | 6 | 79 | 78.2 | 11 |
| 6 |  Estonia |
8 | 2 | 6 | 25.0 |
|
566 | 650 | -84 | 70.8 | 81.2 | 10 |
* Meanwhile, the 2025 EuroBasket Qualifiers continued with Croatia defeating Switzerland 84 – 53 (Karlo Matkovic 17 points), Poland routing Austria 91 – 55 (Aleksander Dziewa 15 points), and Bulgaria downing Romania 84 – 72 (Sasha Vezenkov 28 points, 15 rebounds).