PITESTI (Romania) - Denmark are the FIBA U18 EuroBasket 2025, Division B winners after defeating Estonia 83-77 in Sunday's Final in Pitesti.
Slovakia, meanwhile, will join those two countries in Division A next summer after beating Romania in the Third Place Game.
Denmark claimed their first Division B crown after having previously finished as runners-up in both 2011 and 2022. And, they did so by fighting off a valiant comeback attempt by Estonia.
After a tight first quarter, Denmark raced away with a 17-2 start to the second quarter and soon went into the locker room up 49-31. The cushion swelled to 21 points, but Estonia fought back to cut the deficit to 66-57 after three quarters.
Estonia were slow to score in the fourth, going empty-handed for nearly the first three minutes and the Danes moved 12 points ahead. However, Estonia would not go away and it was 75-73 with under two minutes to play.
Noah Norgaard answered with a three-pointer and four straight free throws in the final 90 seconds to secure the title. The MVP finished with 30 points while Joost Dalgaard-Duus tallied 16 points and Viggo Rimdal had 10 points.
Kaur Tomann put together 30 points, 9 rebound and 3 blocks in a heroic effort which was not enough for Estonia.
Both teams had secured promotion to the top flight by winning in the Semi-Finals on Saturday. Denmark return after being relegated last summer, while Estonia last played in Division A in 2008.
Earlier, Slovakia had earned their promotion spot by rolling past Romania 85-52 in the Third Place Game for just their second summer in Division A after hosting the event in 2017.
The hosts Romania stayed close for the first 15 minutes and then Slovakia started pulling away, leading 41-28 at the break. Slovakia kept pushing forward and took the third quarter 25-14 and Romania were defeated - dashing their hopes of their first Division A appearance since 2007.
Thomas Stanko led the way with 18 points and 11 rebounds for Slovakia while Bruno Randuska had 15 points and Martin Minarovjech collected 12 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists.
Final
Denmark 83-77 Estonia
Third-Place Game
Slovakia 85-52 Romania
FIBA