Ponitka pushes Poland through to first EuroBasket Quarter-Final in 25 years

BERLIN (Germany) - Poland advanced to the Quarter-Finals at FIBA EuroBasket for the first time since 1997 as they came through a tight battle to defeat Ukraine 94-86 to open Sunday's action.

Turning Point: Both teams had their moments in the ascendancy but neither could pull away ahead of the fourth quarter. The game was evenly poised at 76-76 with 6:46 remaining and then came the decisive run as Poland put together a timely 11-2 spell bookended by Mateusz Ponitka connecting from beyond the arc.

TCL Player of the Game: AJ Slaughter - 24 points - had the hot hand in the first half, but Ponitka was a constant presence leading the team and took over in the fourth quarter with some huge shots in the pivotal passage of play. Poland's captain finished with 22 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists to help send them through.

Stats Don't Lie: Ukraine struggled to find their range from outside, shooting at 26 percent in taking 34 attempts and were also only at 74 percent from the foul line as they were unable to come up with the big shots in the fourth quarter. 

Bottom Line: Poland have bounced back from the disappointment on missing out on the FIBA Basketball World Cup and now have the unenviable task of preparing for a Quarter-Final tie against Slovenia on Wednesday. A valiant effort from Ukraine comes up short.

They Said: "We are very proud that we made our country very proud of us. A lot of people didn't believe in us in the beginning and we proved them wrong. It will definitely open eyes and Polish players will be much more wanted and more valued in Europe. We are in the top eight teams in Europe, which is huge. This is the biggest tournament talent wise in history. We made history for Poland. We are very happy and very proud for the Polish basketball community and Poland." - Poland coach Igor Milicic

"We are full of emotions. We knew it would be a tough game. A long game with a lot of ups and downs. This is EuroBasket and everybody is fighting for the Quarter-Finals. And we did it. We came out, everybody stepped up and gave something to the team. Everybody was fighting until the end. It's beautiful. It's beautiful for me personally. Six months ago I was in a very … let's say dark place. And now here we are, in the top eight of EuroBasket. Nobody was believing in us, nobody was believing in me. We proved it." - Mateusz Ponitka, Poland

"It was a tough game as we expected a playoff game is supposed to be. The whole game was not easy for either team. I would say the reason we lost was our offense and not our defense. In this tournament we were not the best defensive team - defensive qualities can always be better. But offensively some of our decisions and our turnovers, the Polish team immediately punished us." - Ukraine coach Ainars Bagatskis

"We know that we have a bright future for the national team. We will some younger guys, everybody will grow up. We have more talent coming. For the next EuroBasket, we'll be even better, stronger and we’re gonna do better. It was a great tournament for us. It was a great learning experience about how we’re supposed to play We can't make kids mistakes. We gotta know who we are playing against, we gotta know personnel, we gotta know our roles. We gotta know what we're doing. I don’t think we did that today." - Svi Mykhailiuk, Ukraine

FIBA