Sixteen teams bound for EuroBasket 2015 Final Phase in Lille

BERLIN/MONTPELLIER/RIGA/ZAGREB (EuroBasket 2015) - The Group Phase of EuroBasket 2015 concluded on Thursday and 16 teams are set to continue their odyssey in Lille during the Final Phase.

Going into Thursday, there remained a number of unknowns with six spots for the Round of 16 still up for grabs.

Belgium was the first team of the day to claim one of the remaining spots, with a 79-71 win over Ukraine in the early game from Group D in Riga.

They were joined by Latvia, who overturned a 16-point deficit to eventually get past a courageous Estonian side 75-64.

Lithuania then took top billing, defeating Czech Republic 85-81, despite the best efforts of Tomas Satoransky who had 15 assists.

In Berlin's Group B, another classic was played out as Germany heartbreakingly lost a third thriller, this time to Spain 77-76, ending their participation in EuroBasket 2015 and assuring the progress of Spain.

Dennis Schroder, who was 5-of-5 from the charity stripe, was sent to the line for three shots to tie the game with three seconds to play. He hit the first two but missed the crucial third one that would have force overtime.

Fans in Berlin however were not to be denied an extra period, with the final game in Arena Berlin going the distance, Iceland's Logi Gunnarsson sinking a triple moments before the buzzer to force Turkey into playing another five minutes. However, the more experienced Turks ran away with it in overtime to win 111-102.

Earlier in the day, Serbia claimed top spot in the group, defeating Italy 101-82.

In the second Group C game of the day in Zagreb, Georgia gave their hopes a serious boost of travelling by shocking hosts Croatia 71-58. Following a nervy wait, their ticket was finally stamped when the undefeated Greece shook off a tenacious Dutch effort, 68-65.

Vlado Ilievski, the long-serving stalwart of The Former Yugoslav of Republic (MKD), was denied a perfect swansong in a national team vest, his side going down to Slovenia 62-51.

With the advancing teams already known in Group A, there was still the matter of defining in what order they would be entering the next round.

Poland began the action with a convincing 78-65 win over Finland before Russia eliminated the donut from their wins column, defeating Bosnia and Herzegovina 81-61. France then rounded out the day in a fight for top spot in the group, seeing off an understrength Israeli side 86-61.

The Round of 16 fixtures are as follows (all times CET/GMT +2):

Saturday 12 September
12:00 Latvia v Slovenia
14:30 Greece v Belgium
18:30 Spain v Poland
21:00 France v Turkey

Sunday 13 September
12:00 Croatia v Czech Republic
14:30 Serbia v Finland
18:30 Israel v Italy
21:00 Lithuania v Georgia

Go to eurobasket2015.org for complete coverage of EuroBasket 2015.

FIBA