TBILISI (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European Qualifiers) - Following an Alfred Hitchcock-like thriller ending to beat Georgia 86-85 and secure early qualification for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019, Greece expressed relief at bagging their China 2019 ticket with games to spare.

After all, they had needed a wild card in order to play at the last World Cup in Spain back in 2014.

On Sunday, in front of 9,000 Georgian fans who packed the Sports Palace Tbilisi, the Greeks fought back from a 17-point deficit to win on Kostas Papanikolaou's layup at the final buzzer and improve to 8-0 in Group L.

"It's a very beautiful thing what's happened, especially if we think that four years ago we had to get a wild card to play in the World Cup," said Papanikolaou, who's game-winning layup capped off a 15-point performance. "Now we have already qualified, which is a credit to all those who have been close to the national team all of these months. We are glad that Greece will be back in a big competition for another year. The truth is that the next windows will be difficult. We all know what the situation is. All the players have done a great job so far and will continue with the same passion."

Greece are even on record in the group with Germany, who also booked their ticket to the World Cup. The Greeks will have a very tough next window in November and December as they will be at home against Germany and then travel to Serbia.

Greece head coach Thanasis Skourtopoulos , who has been without Euroleague and NBA players over the course of the qualification campaign, was missing Ioannis Bourousis and Georgios Printezis for personal reasons against Georgia. In the end, he was able to come up with the answers for an eighth victory in as many games to book Greece's eighth ticket to the World Cup in the last nine editions - the highlight of which was their second-place finish at Japan 2006. 

"I would like to congratulate my team for a very big game we played and also for our qualification to the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019," he said. "For sure I'm very happy. We played a very good game, all the guys worked very hard and that makes me very, very happy for the results but most of all for the atmosphere we have in the team right now. Everybody loves what he’s doing and this is the strong base to go on."

Nick Calathes set a new personal scoring mark with the Greece national team as he scored 31 points including 7 three-pointers to go with 7 assists, 5 rebounds and 2 steals.

When asked if it was one of his best performance in a Hellas jersey, he said: "It was up there for sure. I felt good, my shot was feeling good. They were giving me the three-pointer. For us to get the win it meant a lot. I think there's probably been more important games in the European Championship, World Championship. But this means a lot for us because it gives us our place in China to play for the World Championship so I would put it up there close to one of the best."

Kostas Sloukas for his part flirted with a triple-double, finishing with 14 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists.

"The end of the game came straight from the Hitchcock movies," Sloukas said. "We did not start well and we had to chase them. Our defense on the ball, however, gave us the victory. We played without center for long time. We did not play well, but it is important that we have won and we will be in the World Cup the next summer. The metal in the character of this team has been shown by the time that we reached 6-0 record. Nobody counted on us for the game against Serbia, where we also showed character. This game against Georgia was upside down, but we got a very important victory. Many of us we have been playing in the national team the last 10 years and it is always an honor for us to represent Greece whenever we are given the opportunity."

Now, Sloukas and co know look forward to playing at the World Cup next summer.

FIBA