Yesterday was the final day of the first round brought some surprises to Eurobasket 2011.
Luol Deng's 28 points and 14 rebounds helped Great Britain to an 88-81 win and eliminated Poland from advancing to the second round. Joel Freeland scored 14 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter as the Brits out-rebounded Poland 46-25.
Finland advanced to the second round with a 71-65 win over Montenegro. Finland was trailing by seven points in the third quarter when Petry Virtanen hit back-to-back three's to help get Finland going. Finland dominated the boards by a 46-25 advantage.
With Poland's loss, Turkey needed to win to advance. They accomplished that by holding Spain to one fourth-quarter field goal in their 65-57 victory. Spain, already guaranteed the #1 seed in their group, gave Pau Gasol the day off with a sprained ankle which certainly helped Turkey out. Emir Preldzic scored 18 points in 18 minutes to lead Turkey.
In a battle on unbeatens from Group B, France edged Serbia 97-96 in overtime. Dusko Savanovic missed a 5-footer at the close of overtime that would have won the game for Serbia. The Serbs shot 11-for-23 on three's led by a spectacular performance by Marko Keselj who scored 25 points including a late three-pointer that gave Serbia a brief lead with 24 seconds left in OT. Tony Parker scored 24 points for France while Joakim Noah helped France to a 37-29 rebounding edge with 14 points and nine rebounds. Milis Teodosic fouled out for at the end of regulation which hurt Serbia in the overtime. Teodosic had an off game shooting only 1-for-7 with five turnovers.
Macedonia continued their surprisingly fine play beating Bosnia and Herzegovina 75-63 behind Bo McCalebb's 22 points and 15 points and 14 rebounds from Pero Antic. Germany edged winless Latvia 81-80 as Heiko Schaffartzik made two last minute three-pointers, the last with six seconds remaining.
In other games, Lithuania continued their strong play destroying Portugal 98-69, Israel let Italy come back from a 19-point early fourth quarter deficit before beating the Italians in overtime 96-95, Earl Rowland scored 25 points to lead Bulgaria to a 79-69 win over Georgia, Greece advanced and sent Croatia home 74-69 as Antonis Fotsis hit five three's and 17 points and Ukraine beat Belgium 74-61 and undefeated Russia eliminated Bulgaria 89-77.
Final first round standings:
Group A: 1. Spain (4-1) 2. Lithuania (4-1) 3. Turkey (3-2) 4. Great Britain (2-3) 5. Poland (2-3) 6. Portugal (0-5)
Group B: 1. France (5-0) 2. Serbia (4-1) 3. Germany (3-2) 4. Israel (2-3) 5. Italy (1-4) 6. Latvia (0-5)
Group C: 1. Macedonia (4-1) 2. Greece (4-1) 3. Finland (2-3) 4. Croatia (2-3) 5. Bosnia and Herzegovina (2-3) 6. Montenegro (1-4)
Group D: 1. Russia (5-0) 2. Slovenia (4-1) 3. Georgia (2-3) 4. Bulgaria (2-3) 5. Ukraine (2-3) 6. Belgium (0-5)
Second Round Groups
Group E: Germany, Spain, Turkey, France, Serbia, Lithuania
Group F: Georgia, Macedonia, Finland, Russia, Slovenia Greece
The second round begins with three games on Tuesday and Wednesday.
NetScouts Basketball will be reporting throughout the event. You can follow NetScouts Basketball on twitter here. Thanks to FIBA for the photos.