Estonia stay undefeated as Quarter-Final pairings confirmed in Skopje

SKOPJE (FIBA U18 European Championship 2018, Division B) – There are just eight names in the race for promotion at the FIBA U18 European Championship 2018, Division B after the conclusion of the Group Phase on Wednesday evening.

Estonia enter the make-or-break section of the tournament as the only remaining undefeated team after taking their record to 5-0 in Group B with an 85-64 victory over Austria, Estonian rising star Henri Drell showering his opponents with 17 points in just under 20 minutes of action.

Iliver Suurorg and Karl Karpin collected 13 and 12 points respectively for the Indrek Reinbok-coached team, as Paul Isbetcherian filled the boxscore for Austria with 18 points, 6 rebounds and 7 steals, but also 8 turnovers.

Having already won five games, Estonia will need at least two more to secure promotion

The second ticket to the Quarter-Finals in the group was claimed by Belgium, who downed Hungary 81-58 behind Haris Bratanovic's game-high of 22 points and 9 rebounds, while Georgia signed off from the Group Phase with a 75-50 victory over Azerbaijan.

Sweden won the all-Scandinavian showdown against Denmark for the only remaining slot in Group D after Slovenia locked up the top spot in the standings a day ahead of time. Hakan Arne Oliver Gehrke was the top scorer of the game with 22 points to guide the Swedes to an 84-70 win over their southern neighbors to finish in second position with a 4-1 record.

Having secured an early bird ticket to the next round, Slovenia saw their perfect record tainted by Bulgaria in a 69-66 upset that took the Tsvetomir Chernokojev-led Bulgarians up to third place in the table with a 3-2 record. Meanwhile, Slovakia improved to 2-3 by defeating Albania 81-47 in the last fixture of the Group Phase.

Portugal won the Group A crown, with Belarus placing second

Portugal and Belarus earned the right to continue their quests for promotion in Group A after finishing first and second respectively in the standings, with identical 4-1 marks.

Francisco Amarante carried Portugal to a 55-42 win over Switzerland with a team-high 15 points, while Dzmitry Ryuny shone for Belarus in a 97-69 thumping of Romania, scoring 20 points, grabbing 10 rebounds, dishing out 4 assists and coming up with 6 steals.

Despite downing Poland 92-87 for their third straight win, Norway couldn't squeeze in between Portugal and Belarus and will continue their campaign in the Classification Games.

A 4-1 record in Group C wasn't enough for Israel to qualify for the Quarter-Finals

There were no upsets on the cards in Group C on Wednesday, with the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Israel taking their markers to 4-1 in the standings, as the Dutch battered Luxembourg 104-58; the Czechs held off the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 70-63; and Israel topped Iceland 92-60.

This spelled good news for the Netherlands and Czech Republic and bad news for Israel, who had the worst head-to-head point differential in the three-way tie and were consequently eliminated.