TBILISI (Georgia) - Serbia claimed their second FIBA U16 EuroBasket title after overturning a half-time deficit to beat Lithuania in Saturday's Final.
It was Lithuania who made the early moves as they established a 53-43 cushion going into the interval, but Serbia came out strong with a 32-15 third quarter before sealing a memorable 99-86 triumph.
Petar Bjelica top scored in the win with 25 points for Serbia, with Ognjen Simjanovski adding 22 points and Nikola Kusturica posting a near triple-double effort of 18 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists.
Kusturica earned the MVP honors after an outstanding tournament for Serbia with averages of 20.0 points, 7.7 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game.
Serbia's duo of Kusturica and Bjelica were joined in the All-Star Five lineup by Lithuania's Gabrielius Buivydas, Lun Jarc of Slovenia and France's Nathan Soliman.
Slovenia secured a first-ever podium finish at the tournament with a 79-71 success over Italy in the Third Place Game.
The top five teams also earned qualification to the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2026 with France claiming the final European spot by beating Latvia in the Classification 5-6 game.
Meanwhile, Estonia, Finland and Switzerland were relegated from Division A after finishing in the bottom three places.
They will be replaced by Belgium, Poland and Czechia after they secured promotion at the FIBA U16 EuroBasket 2025, Division B in Skopje, North Macedonia.
Final Standings
Serbia
Lithuania
Slovenia
Italy
France
Latvia
Türkiye
Spain
Germany
Greece
Georgia
Romania
Israel
Estonia
Finland
Switzerland
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