No bus, no fuss: Slovenia started its EuroBasket defense with a win
Goran Dragić scored 19 points for Slovenia, while Luka Dončić finished with 14 points and 10 assists.
“We were a little nervous because before the game you want to focus on the game,” Dragic said of the no-bus problem, which the team solved by hiring a couple of taxis for the very cramped ride to the venue.
Thursday was the first day of the tournament. There are 24 teams on the field, which are divided into four groups of six. The top four teams in each group will advance to the knockout stages in Berlin, which will begin on September 10 and go through to the title game on September 18.
Lithuania led 78-73 about midway through the fourth quarter before Slovenia — which won the last EuroBasket tournament in 2017, arguably the small country’s biggest sporting moment — went on a 15-3 run.
Tobey made three consecutive field goals for Slovenia, two of which were assisted by Dončić, and Dragić put Slovenia up 85-81 with a three-pointer at 2:37.
“We knew it was going to be a tough game,” Dragic said. Especially because it feels like they’re playing in Lithuania. They have a lot of fans who came and cheered for them. … We only focused on EuroBasket and tried to start the tournament with a win. We brought a lot of courage and a lot of effort.”
Mindaugas Kuzminskas was the best for Lithuania with 19 points. Marius Grigonis scored 18, Lukas Lekavicius 14 and Domantas Sabonis 10. Jonas Valanciunas finished with nine points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
Germany retired Dirk Nowitzki’s number 14 jersey in a ceremony before the Germany-France match in Cologne.
Nowitzki is the first German player to receive this honor. Among the many friends who flew in for the event: Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and coach Jason Kidd.
Dončić, who replaced Nowitzki as Dallas’ superstar, also watched the ceremony, which took place shortly after the end of the game between Slovenia and Lithuania.
The German hosts closed the third quarter on a 19-4 run to take control and eliminate one of the pre-tournament favorites, perhaps influenced by that Nowitzki ceremony.
Johannes Thiemann scored 14 goals for Germany, followed by Maoda Lo and Niels Giffey with 13 each and Dennis Schroder with 11.
Guerschon Yabusele scored 18 for France. Rudy Gobert finished with 11 points and 12 rebounds, while Evan Fournier was held to just seven points on 2-for-10 shooting.
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA 95, HUNGARY 85
Jusuf Nurkić and Džanan Musa each scored 19 points, and Bosnia and Herzegovina used a 10-0 run in the final minutes to pull away from Hungary.
John Roberson scored 18 points for the winners. Szilard Benke was the top scorer for the Hungarians with 20 points.
For Tbilisi, Georgia, Lorenzo Brown scored 17 points in 17 minutes and Willy Hernangomez added 16 as Spain, bronze medalists at the last EuroBasket in 2017, played in the opener.
Rudy Fernandez finished with 14 points for Spain, putting seven players in double figures.
Aleksandar Vezenkov had a game-high 26 points and 11 rebounds for Bulgaria.
Shane Larkin scored 18 points and Cedi Osman 15 as Turkey outscored Montenegro 7-0 in the final 62 seconds to win.
Alperen Sengun scored 12 for Turkey, and Furkan Korkmaz scored five of his nine points in that last-minute spurt.
For Montenegro, Bojan Dubljević scored 18 and Marko Simonović scored 13. Montenegro appeared on the EuroBasket court as a replacement for Russia, which qualified for the tournament but was banned by FIBA in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
BELGIUM 79, GEORGIA 76, OT
Jonathan Tabu’s 3-pointer with 3 seconds left was the difference as Belgium beat hosts Georgia.
Tabu and Jean-Marc Mwema each scored 14 points for the Belgians, Ismael Bako scored 11, and Manu Lecomte scored 10.
Aleksander Mamukelašvili was the best for the Georgians with 18 points and 13 rebounds. He hit two free throws with 11 seconds left in overtime to tie the game.
Thaddus McFadden had 17 and Goga Bitadze had 14 for Georgia.
Group C and Group D play begins. In Group C in Milan, Ukraine plays Great Britain, Croatia plays Greece, Italy plays Estonia.
In Group D, Israel meets Finland in Prague, Poland meets the Czech Republic, and current EuroBasket silver medalist Serbia meets the Netherlands.
All four groups – which means all 24 teams – will compete on Saturday.
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