Roundup

Yochai Zuckerman added 12 points as Israel shocked Hungary to move to 1-1 in Group F

Israel claimed a crucial win in the race for the Semi-Finals with an 82-68 triumph over Hungary in Qualifying Round Group F.

Israel held a ten-point lead at half-time, and then restricted Hungary to just 8 points in the third quarter to move clear for victory.

Idan Zalmanson contributed 8 points to the 15-1 run which closed the third period, and finished with a game-high 19 points.

Coach Natan Cohen was proud of his team's defense after the game: "Hungary are a strong, quality team, but we stopped them with good, aggressive defense all game. It decided the game early, which was good for us because we could get some rest and start to prepare for the next game against Armenia."

Israel took great care of the ball, only committing 7 turnovers while forcing 18 turnovers from their opponent.

Naor Sharon finished with 14 points and 8 assists, and Yochai Zuckerman and Itay Segev both added 12 points. György Golomán led Hungary with 14 points and 7 rebounds, and Dávid Boinitzer added 10 points and 8 rebounds in the defeat.

In the other game in Group F, Bosnia and Herzegovina stayed perfect in the tournament with an 83-73 win over Armenia. Armenia fought well but shot just 41% from the field and missed 16 free throws in the defeat.

Bosnia and Herzegovina began the game with a 10-1 run but Armenia pulled the game back to 21-17 on Arkadiy Mkrtychyan's three-point play. Bosnia surged further ahead though with a 14-4 run in the second quarter, and at half-time the score was 43-29.

Armenia scored the last 8 points of the third quarter behind two three-pointers from Sergei Pogosyan, but they were never able to reduce the lead to less than 7 points.

Nedim Buza led Bosnia and Herzegovina with 25 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocked shots. Bojan Lulic added 14 points and 8 rebounds and Adi Zahiragic had 10 points, 4 assists and 5 steals.

Andrey Konstantinov top-scored for Armenia with 22 points and grabbed 8 rebounds. Sergei Pogosyan ended with 16 points.

Slovenia and England will play tomorrow to decide first place in Qualifying Round Group E, after both teams secured their progress with straightforward wins.

Morayoninuoluwa Soluade recorded a triple double in England's win over the Netherlands with 11 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists

England clinched a semi-final place with a 79-58 win over the Netherlands.

England had five players with double-digits point totals, led by Morayoninuoluwa Soluade's triple-double of 11 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists, plus 4 steals.

Tyrell Isaacs top-scored with 18 points, Samuel Round added 14 points, and Kingsley Okoroh had 12 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocked shots in the win. Pim de Vries led the Netherlands with 16 points.

An 11-1 run helped England establish a lead in the first half, and Okoroh's lay-up extended the lead to 14 points late in the half. The lead was cut to 7 points in the third quarter, but Soulade's dunk with 1:25 remaining in the period gave England a 58-41 lead which they never looked like losing in the final period.

Coach Simon Fisher praised Soluade after the game: "He was fantastic for us, but all the team were. We played really good, we stopped them with our high-tempo defense, and we had the spirit needed for games like this."

Slovenia held Romania to just 17 points in the first half on their way to a 75-49 win which ensured their progress to the Semi-Finals. An 18-2 run capped by Luka Kokol's lay-up gave Slovenia the advantage in the first quarter. Ziga Zatezic scored on a jump-shot at the end of the first-half to make the score 38-17 to Slovenia.

Romania tried to stage a comeback, and Robert Lander hit a jump shot at the end of the third quarter to cut the lead to 17. But Slovenia responded with a 13-2 run at the start of the final period to underline their dominance.

Slovenia dominated the rebounds (50-28) and held the Romanian team to 32% shooting in the contest. Jure Ritlop led Slovenia with a double-double (16 points, 12 rebounds), Kokol added 15 points and Aleksej Nikolic contributed 6 points, 13 rebounds and 6 assists in the win. Mehmet Hortoglu top-scored for Romania with 11 points.

Coach Milos Sporar was pleased with his team's effort for the whole game: "We played really well, especially in the first half with many fast-breaks. In the third period there were maybe some empty minutes, but the guys showed their skills and stayed focused on the game."

In the Classification games, there were wins for Portugal, Finland, Estonia, Belgium, Slovak Republic and finally hosts FYR of Macedonia, who beat Austria 55-54 to claim their first win of the tournament. Stefan Trajkovski scored the game-winner with 11 seconds remaining, Florian Pelc missing with Austria's last attempt. Ljubomir Mladenovski led FYR of Macedonia in the win with a double-double of 17 points and 10 rebounds. Marko Soldo scored a game-high 20 points for Austria in defeat.