PITESTI (Romania) - Romania's dreams of returning to Division A remain alive as the hosts of the FIBA U18 EuroBasket 2025, Division B reached the final four as they, Denmark, Estonia and Slovakia all won their respective Quarter-Finals.
The most suspenseful game of the day in Pitesti was Slovakia's nailbiter 64-63 win over Hungary. Slovakia fought back from 11 points down in the second quarter and held on for the victory despite not scoring for the final 2:30 minutes.
Bruno Randuska paced four players in double figures with 14 points for Slovakia, whose only summer in Division A at the U18 level was in 2017.
Slovakia's opponent in the Semi-Finals will be Denmark, who beat Poland 93-74. Poland were leading midway through the third quarter but Denmark mounted a 15-2 run for an 11-point advantage and the Polish never got closer than nine points the rest of the way.
Noah Norgaard and Viggo Rimdal both scored 24 points and the latter chipped in 11 rebounds for the Danes, who were relegated from the Division A last summer.
Hosts Romania took over their Quarter-Final game in the second quarter and ended up beating Bosnia and Herzegovina 70-63 as they hope to get back to Division A for the first time since 2007. David-Ioan Rasoga led the way with 18 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists.
Romania will next take on Estonia, who fended off a valiant comeback by Montenegro for a 79-74 win. Estonia, who last played in Division A in 2008, led 27-12 after the first quarter and the cushion was 19 points at halftime.
Montenegro fought back within one point in the final period but Estonia did not hand over the lead. Oliver Kullamae came up with a number of big plays late, and the point guard nearly had a triple-double with 22 points including four three-pointers, 9 rebounds and 11 assists.
The Semi-Finals will take place on Saturday with the two winning sides already locking up promotion to Division A next summer. The third spot will be decided in Sunday's Third Place Game.
Semi-Final Pairings
Denmark vs Slovakia Romania vs Estonia
FIBA