ALYTUS/VILNIUS (Lithuania) - Sweden finished their FIBA U18 Women's EuroBasket 2025, Division B campaign in style with a 77-69 comeback victory over Germany to take first place en route back to Division A.
Also securing promotion to the top flight next summer was Croatia, who beat hosts Lithuania in the Third-Place Game.
Sweden rallied from a 13-point deficit to exact revenge on Germany, who had beaten them 49-44 in the first game of the tournament. Sweden went undefeated from that point on and held Germany scoreless for five minutes late in the Final with an 11-0 run to win the game.
Shiloh Kalenga led the way in the title bout with 29 points and 7 rebounds while Leila Bajagilovic collected 15 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists.
It was the second time that Sweden won the U18 Division B following 2016 and the country returns to Division A after spending the past two summers in the lower flight. Germany won promotion directly after being relegated last year.
Germany were handed their first loss of the tournament despite Rosalie Esser and Marija Ilic both scoring 15 points. Clara Bielefeld was held to 3 points but added 17 rebounds, 13 assists, 3 steals and 4 blocks in the loss.
Germany raced ahead to a double-digit lead early on at 14-4 only to see Sweden fight back into the game and trail just 18-16 after 10 minutes. Germany pulled away again with a 12-2 spurt and the advantage grew to 13 points at 34-21. The Swedes were down 38-28 at halftime.
The cushion was up to 12 points to start the second half but Sweden charged back into the game with runs of 12-0 and 13-1 for a 51-47 lead. The rest of the quarter was tight and the score was 56-56 after 30 minutes.
The fourth quarter remained a one-possession game until Sweden scored 11 straight points to make it 76-67 with just 50 seconds to play.
Earlier, Croatia used a big second quarter run to defeat hosts Lithuania 88-83 and secure promotion back to Division A after being relegated last summer.
Lena Bilic, who was one of five players returning from the 2024 U18 team, drained three three-pointers in Croatia's 13-0 surge to open a 42-28 lead. Croatia remained in control the rest of the game.
Bilic ended up scoring 41 points to go with 5 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 steals for an efficiency of 40. Bilic's point total ranks second all-time in FIBA U18 Women EuroBasket Division B history behind only Luxembourg's Faith Ehi Etute, who scored 48 points against Slovakia in 2023.
Bilic become the fourth player to hit the 40-point mark in a U18 Division B game following Bulgaria's Nora Georgieva, who had 40 points versus Montenegro in 2010 and Bulgaria's Borislava Hristova's 40 points against Finland in 2013. Ehi Etute also tallied 40 points against Romania in 2023.
Lea Vukic added 25 points, 13 rebounds and 6 assists in the win while Vakare Griskute came off the bench for 18 points and Gabija Galvanauskaite totalled 17 points and 18 rebounds for Lithuania, who were dropped from Division A in 2023.
Elsewhere, Kolbrun Armannsdottir scored 16 points in Iceland's 62-56 win over Great Britain for fifth place and Netherlands knocked off Estonia 74-66 to take seventh place thanks to Quintilla Hidalgo collecting 18 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists and 7 steals.
FIBA