EuroBasket - Ukraine hold off Italy to book World Cup spot

LJUBLJANA (EuroBasket/FIBA Basketball World Cup) - Ukraine capped a great ride at EuroBasket 2013 by shrugging off a Quarter-Final defeat to beat Italy 66-58 in the 5-8 Classification Round on Friday and book a spot at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

Eugene 'Pooh' Jeter scored 20 points for the Ukrainians, who lost to Croatia in the Final Eight on Thursday. Viacheslav Kravtsov added six points, six rebounds and six blocks for Ukraine - the hosts of EuroBasket 2015.

"We knew that Italy played two hours later than us so we tried to be aggressive on both ends of the court. This was the key to our win today," said Ukraine's Dmytro Zabirchenko.

"Maybe they were tired but this doesn’t mean anything now. We are qualified for the World Cup."

Italy head coach Simone Pianigiani confirmed that fatigue was to blame.

"Simply we were not able to play a game after 15 hours. A team like my team with our basketball, it was really impossible today to face Ukraine," he explained.

"We tried one more time. You can see my players. They are so sad, so tired."

Ukraine advanced past the first round of a European tournament for the first time in their history and will face Slovenia in Saturday's Fifth-Place Game.

Italy, who dropped their Quarter-Final to Lithuania on Thursday, were paced by Pietro Aradori's 15 points. Italy have one more chance to qualify for the World Cup as they take on Serbia in the Seventh-Place Game on Saturday.

Aradori scored six straight points to give Italy an early 12-5 lead. Oleksandr Lypovvy hit a three-pointer and Jeter converted a three-point play to get Ukraine close again. But a triple by Alessandro Gentile helped Italy lead 17-13 after one quarter.

The Azzurri's lead was 24-18 when Ukraine went on a 7-0 run to pull ahead for the first time at 25-24. Luigi Datome and Aradori both knocked down triples and Italy were back up 30-25. Ukraine closed the first half on a 10-4 surge to go into the break up 35-34.

The Ukrainians scored the first four points of the second half to open their biggest lead, 39-34. Marco Belinelli tied the game with a triple and after Ukraine again went ahead by three, it was Datome's turn to nail a long ball to tie the game at 42-42. The lead switched hands four times over the remainder of the quarter with Ukraine ahead 51-48 on Olexandr Mishula's last second three-ball.

Jeter and Maksym Pustozvonov combined for all eight points in an 8-0 run in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter to take a 59-48 lead. Italy closed to within 63-58 but could not finish off a comeback.

For full and in-depth coverage of EuroBasket 2013, go to the official website http://www.eurobasket2013.org.

FIBA