FIBA Europe - Montenegro beat Italy to take control

BIJELO POLJE (EuroBasket) - Montenegro have taken complete control of Group A in the EuroBasket qualifying campaign after inflicting yet another defeat on disappointing Italy.

Montenegro put together a late run to secure a 71-62 win over Italy, moving their own record to 3-0 while Italy sink to 1-3 and out of contention.

Montenegro finished the game on a 14-5 run to turn a 57-57 tie 3:54 from time into a comfortable-looking victory.

Nikola Pekovic finished with 28 points in a dominant performance, having made 11 of 15 (73.3%) of his shots from the field and six of seven (85.7%) from the charity stripe.

Goran Jeretin also made it into double figures with 12 points.

Andrea Bargnani led Italy with 17 points while Marco Belinelli added 13 and Stefano Mancinelli had 10.

And Montenegro have moved clear of Israel at the top of the Group after the latter suffered a shock 84-83 defeat to previously winless Finland.

Finland scored the final four points of the game, all from the free-throw line, and were aided by a critical turnover from Israel captain Tal Burstein as they came back from 83-80 down in the last 21 seconds.

The Finland victory was all the more remarkable given that coach Henrik Dettman was earlier forced to add Vesa Makalainen and Sasu Salin to his squad after injury sidelined key veteran Hanno Mottola.

The moved paid off as rising teenage star Salin collected 11 points in less than 10 minutes on his senior debut, shooting a deadly three-of-three from three-point range.

Shawn Huff and Virtanan led Finland with 13 points each, while Tuomas Iisalo had 12 and Lee collected 10.

Halperin led Israel with 18 points, while Omri Casspi added 17. Lior Eliyahu and Guy Pnini had 12 each, while Raviv Limonad chipped in 10.

In Group B, Serhiy Lishchuk poured in 25 points to lead Ukraine to their first win, beating Hungary 80-71.

Oleksiy Pecherov added 15 points for Ukraine and Dmytro Gliebov chipped in with 14 points.

Adam Hanga had 22 points in vain for Hungary, while David Vojvoda and Peter Lorant both collected 12 and Akos Horvath finished with 10.

However, the group is in the grip of Great Britain, who picked up their second road win, beating Bosnia & Herzegovina 84-80 to move to 3-0.

It was not pretty, however, as Britain were made to sweat through the final seconds as Bosnia chipped away at the 82-76 lead they held with 18 seconds left.

The game was decided from the free throw line, with veteran guard Nate Reinking sinking the vital shots on a night when he had 21 points.

Dan Clark played his best game to date in international basketball with 23 points.

Belgium sit top of Group C after holding off a Bulgarian rally to win 74-69.

Christophe Beghin led the victors with 15 points as they survived a late 11-3 run from the visitors to take the win.

Georgia kept alive their own hopes with a 73-57 win over Portugal as Zaza Pachulia poured in 17 points.

FIBA