Serbia, Sweden, Latvia, Belgium and Turkey were the teams that earned the coveted last five tickets to EuroBasket 2013 on Tuesday. Latvia reached an 85-77 victory in Romania to finish with a 5-3 record in Group D and secure qualification as one of the four best third-placed teams in the Qualification Round.
Turkey meanwhile dominated the Czech Republic, 81-58, to take second place in Group F and book their ticket to the EuroBasket in style.
In Group E, Belgium took a comfortable 82-46 win in Albania and just like the Latvians, finished with a 5-3 record and earned qualification as one the four best third-place sides.
Group B saw a much more dramatic final day, with Sweden earning a place at next summer’s showpiece event thanks to a combination of their 85-68 victory in Luxembourg and Azerbaijan’s 81-68 loss to Germany, within minutes of each other.
Sweden, Bulgaria and Azerbaijan all finished tied at 4-4 but the Swedes took second place in the group and clinched qualification thanks to their better points differential in the three-way tie.
Following these results, the last available EuroBasket berth would go to Group A but the question was which one of Serbia or Estonia would take it.
The Serbians came up with an emphatic answer, leading Israel from start to finish to win, 83-67, and take third place in the group over the Estonians.
The five teams that booked their tickets on the final day, along with Montenegro, Israel, Germany, Croatia, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Poland, Finland, Italy and the Czech Republic, who had already secured a place before the final gameday, are the 16 teams that advance to EuroBasket 2013 from the Qualification Round.
They will join the eight teams who had qualified directly to the 24-team event: Reigning European champions Spain, France, Russia, F.Y.R. of Macedonia, Lithuania, Greece, Slovenia and 2012 Olympics hosts Great Britain.
The 24 teams that will compete at EuroBasket 2013 are (in alphabetical order):
BELGIUM ITALY
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA LATVIA
CROATIA LITHUANIA
CZECH REPUBLIC MONTENEGRO
F.Y.R. OF MACEDONIA POLAND
FINLAND RUSSIA
FRANCE SERBIA
GEORGIA SLOVENIA
GERMANY SPAIN
GREAT BRITAIN SWEDEN
GREECE TURKEY
ISRAEL UKRAINE. —- FIBAEurope
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