MUNICH (Germany) - Four games were played on Sunday to conclude the first window of the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Pre-Qualifiers First Round, with Austria emerging as the only team with two wins in two games.

Austria were on the road in Ireland, and opened up a big lead early on in the game, which made it seem like it could be an easy day at the office. But a 28-point second quarter got the hosts back in it until the half, and made Austria work even harder after the break.

The response was perfect. The red-and-white opened up a 28-point lead at one point and ended with a 97-70 win in Group A thanks to their dominant second half. Thomas Klepeisz had 25 points to lead the scoring, Bogic Vujosevic orchestrated the offense with 19 points and 8 assists, four other men scored in double figures, including 18-year-old Guylain Mbemba.

Ireland dropped to 1-1 after beating Cyprus on the road on Gameday 1; Austria rose to 2-0, having defeated Switzerland three days ago.

In the same group, Switzerland are also at 1-1, while Cyprus fell to 0-2, as Ilias Papatheodorou's squad kept Cyprus without a single player in double figures on Sunday night. Switzerland won 66-43, nobody collecting more than 6 points for Cyprus; Roberto Kovac led the way with 16 for Switzerland.

In Group B, Luxembourg have retained their title of being the unluckiest team of the competition. After losing to Albania by three points, they lost to Romania at home by the same margin, 73-70. Kris Richard put up 16 points for Romania, and coach Dragan Petricevic will especially like the contribution from the 21-year-old Mihai Maciuca, author of 11 points and 7 rebounds off the bench.

"It was the first game with fans back for us in a long time. That was an amazing impact for my team," Petricevic praised the atmosphere on the road.

Romania are up to 1-0, Albania have the same record in the group, while Luxembourg have a mountain to climb at 0-2 after the first window.

In Group C, Denmark played their first game and almost came back from -21 in the last quarter. But Kosovo survived, finding their hero in Drilon Hajrizi who made a much needed layup when it was a four-point game with two minutes left, and then secured the win within the final 10 seconds, knocking down both shots from the line to set the final score at 78-73.

Hajrizi scored 14 points, Valon Bunjaku also finished with 14, but it was the usual suspect who led Kosovo in scoring. Dardan Berisha put up 16 points, with 5 assists in for good measure. Kosovo are now at 1-1, Denmark start the campaign with a defeat despite getting 24 points from Daniel Andreas Mortensen.

FIBA