Georgia stuns France to reach EuroBasket quarterfinals, Poland also advances

By Canadian Press on September 7, 2025.

RIGA, Latvia (AP) — Georgia advanced to the quarterfinals at the EuroBasket tournament for the first time with a dominant 80-70 win against France on Sunday.

France was runner-up to Spain in the 2022 final but both teams failed to reach the quarterfinal stage this time. Georgia advanced to face Finland, which knocked out Nikola Jokic’s Serbia side on Saturday.

Georgia’s players sprinted off the bench at the end of the round-of-16 match, hugging and jumping up and down as their fans banged drums and danced in the crowd in Riga, Latvia.

Olympic silver medalist France made only six of its 36 3-pointer attempts for a paltry average of 17% while Georgia scored from over half of its 3-pointers and punished France for frequently fouling by scoring 20 of 24 free throws.

Georgia led by one point at halftime and by nine early into the fourth quarter, with Barcelona forward Tornike Shengelia’s blend of athleticism and raw power pressuring France’s inexperienced defense.

France’s scrappy offense failed to get Guerschon Yabusele — who scored 36 points against Poland during the group stage — into enough open play and he was too often pushed out wide.

Zaccharie Risacher, the No. 1 NBA draft pick last year, found some form as France dragged itself back into the game and, with three minutes left, the score was 68-68.

But France’s wastefulness from 3-pointers ultimately proved costly as Les Bleus could not get on a run.

Shengelia was inspirational for Georgia with 24 points and eight rebounds, while American-born Kamar Baldwin also scored 24 for Georgia, which beat Spain during the group stage.

Point guard Sylvain Francisco top-scored with 14 points for France. Yabusele was restricted to 12 points and Risacher mustered only seven.

Poland advances

Shooting guard Jordan Loyd scored 28 points and forward Mateusz Ponitka had 19 points and 11 rebounds as Poland beat Bosnia and Herzegovina 80-72 to set up a quarterfinal against Turkey.

Utah Jazz center Jusuf Nurkić again led Bosnia and Herzegovina with 20 points and seven rebounds.

In the remaining round-of-16 matches, Italy faced Slovenia later Sunday and Greece — which eliminated Spain in the group stage — took on Israel.

The quarterfinals will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The final is next Sunday. ___

AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports

The Associated Press

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