Estonian basketball team Photo: FIBA
The Estonian men’s basketball team lost in the 2023 World Cup (WC) qualifiers on Monday in Lublin. In the Group D away match, the Estonians conceded to Poland with 68:70 (21:12, 21:26, 14:17, 12:15).
Mike Kalev Kotsar was the top scorer for Estonia with 24 points and seven rebounds, while Janari Joesar added 14 points. Mihals Sokolovskis scored 15 points and Jaroslav Ziskovskis scored 15 points for the home team who won the first group. Estonia has two successes in four battles, Germany and Israel have two victories in three matches, and Poland has won one in four duels.
In Group B, Turkey made concessions to Greece at home – 67:76 (15:17, 18:19, 13:26, 21:14). 16 points and six assists for Shein Larkkin, less for Meliham Mahmutol. Dimitrijs Agravanis was the winner with 22 points and 11 rebounds, but Georgi Papajannis scored less than a point and two rebounds.
Greece has three wins in four games, Turkey has one, and Belarus and Britain have won in two games, celebrating one victory each. Slovenia gave way to Finland in Group C with 79:83 (16:26, 15:26, 18:12, 30:19). Mike Tobias scored 20 points, 17 points, ten rebounds and five assists for Jake Blazic. Mikaels Jantunens scored 17 points, Ilari Sepala and Sasu Salins scored 13 points each.
In group A, where Latvia meets at home with Belgium on Monday, Slovakia conceded to Serbia with 63:71 (16:26, 15:18, 22:16, 10:11) on its field. Vladimir Brodzyanski scored 22 points and eight rebounds for the home team, while Marek Dolezai scored 17 points and six rebounds. Aleksa Avramovičs scored 24 points and six assists. Nikolos Jovičs scored 13 points, Dušan Rističs scored 12 points and seven rebounds, respectively.
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.
