Lithuanian basketball team Photo: FIBA
The Lithuanian men’s basketball team celebrated its victory in the fourth match of the 2023 World Cup (WC) qualifying tournament on Sunday and secured a place in the next round of selection. The Lithuanians in Vilnius defeated the state unit of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the result 77:56 (20:12, 14:20, 21:12, 22:12).
The home scorer with 19 points was Tomas Dimša, David Gailius added 15 points, but Gita Radzevičs had nine points and eight rebounds. Edin Atičs scored 12 points for the Bosnians. Bosnia and Herzegovina’s team initially had concerns about going to Vilnius for security reasons, but the team arrived in the Lithuanian capital.
Andrei Sharapa, a Belarusian judge, was originally appointed as one of the referee’s judges, but at the request of Lithuania, he was replaced by Spaniard Luis Castillo.
In this group, the Czech Republic defeated Bulgaria with a score of 83:80 (25:25, 16:15, 15:18, 27:22). Vojteh Hruban scored 29 points for the Czech Republic, while Martin Peterk had 25 points and ten rebounds. Pavlin Ivanov and Alexander Janev scored 17 points for the Bulgarians. In sub-group F, Lithuania takes the first place with four wins in four games, Bosnia and Herzegovina have two successes, and Bulgaria and the Czech Republic have won one.
France also qualified for the second stage, beating Portugal by 69:56 (17:16, 17:19, 15: 8, 20:13). The French scored 16 points in the position of M’Baye and 15 were added by Man Francisco. For Portugal, Rafael Lisboa was the top scorer with 14 points.
In the second game of this group, Hungary beat Montenegro with the result 88:84 (17:14, 23:21, 19:24, 29:25). David Vojvoda stood out with 24 points in the Hungarian national team, while Zoltan Perls scored 19 points. Montenegro’s top scorer with 21 points was Justin Kobs, while Vladimir Mikhailovich had 18 points. In sub-group E, France is in first place with four successes in four games, Montenegro and Hungary with two wins and Portugal with four losses.
Georgia, meanwhile, defeated northern Macedonia in Group G with a result of 79:65 (18:21, 25:14, 15:17, 21:13), entering the next stage with Spain. Tadeus Macfeiden scored 24 points for the Georgian national team, but Nenad Dimitrijevic had 25 points for the opponents, seven rebounds and eight errors.
Due to the hostilities in Ukraine, Ukraine, led by Ainars Bagatskis, could not play a match with Spain. In Group G, there are four and three fights for Georgia and Spain, Ukraine has won one of the three fights, and Northern Macedonia has lost in all four duels.
On Sunday, Italy defeated Iceland at 95:87 (27:28, 26:17, 21:17, 21:25). Amedeo Della Valle was the top scorer for the Italians with 26 points, while Elvars Fridriksons scored 30 points for the Icelanders. The Dutch basketball players refused to play a match with the Russian national team.
In subgroup H, Russia wins three games in three games, Italy and Iceland have won two games in four battles, and the Netherlands have lost in all three matches. In the first qualifying round, 32 European Zone teams are divided into eight groups of four each. Each group team is played twice – once at home, once as a guest. The games are scheduled in three windows: November 20-30, 2021, February 21, 2022 – March 1, and June 27 – July 5.
The three strongest teams in each group will enter the second round of the qualifying tournament, where they will play six more games. In this round, the games will take place on August 22-30, November 7-15, February 20-28 (2023). There will be two games in each of the windows. The three strongest teams of the four groups will reach the World Cup main event. A total of 12 national teams from the European area will qualify for the World Cup. The final of the World Cup in September 2023 will take place in Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines.
