SCHWECHAT (FIBA EuroBasket 2021 Pre-Qualifiers) - Austria and Cyprus caught the overtime flu which is spreading across the Second Round of the Pre-Qualifiers. But the hosts found the medicine in the extra five minutes, winning 72-69.

Turning point: Maybe the end of the first quarter had the most influence on the final score. Iakovos Panteli slalomed his way through the Austrian defense, just in time to launch a shot from half court and beat the first-quarter buzzer. After making such a circus shot, maybe the degree of difficulty was too low for him at the end of the game - he missed a wide open three-pointer to send the game into another overtime.

Game hero: Thomas Schreiner needed just seven shots from the field to pick up the best stat-line of the game. He finished with 14 points on 3-of-7 from the field, dished out 9 assists, had 3 rebounds and 3 steals to his name, too.

Stats don't lie: Austria were sharing the ball perfectly, adding up 21 assists, which really is remarkable considering they shot just 22-of-64 from the field. Cyprus had 11 assists to 21 turnovers, not going to win any games with such an assists-to-turnover ratio.

Game notes: Austria finally erased the bad taste of a winless campaign in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European Qualifiers First Round. They can now relax before a hectic four days in the next Window, when they have to travel to both Great Britain and Cyprus.

They said:  "It was a disgusting game for us, but we won. That’s all, that matters" - Austrian player Moritz Lanegger 

FIBA