Montenegro and Georgia defeated their respective opponents Sweden and Belarus in the second leg and were promoted to Eurobasket Division A.
The Montenegrins had won the first leg in Sweden by 20 points (50-70) and all they needed was not to lose by more at home, which of course didn't happen as they beat the Scandinavians 88-71. Nikola Pekovic had 17 points for the winning side and Martin Ringstrom scored the same for Sweden.
Montenegro: Dasic 14, Jeretin 9, Scepanovic 13, Borisov, Golubovic 5, Cook 10, Vranes, Drobnjak 14, Koljevic, Pekovic 17, Rakocevic 5, Sehovic 1
Sweden: Nystrom 9, Massamba 3, Lindqvist, Levin 13, Pahimblad 5, Inan, Grant 9, Kjellbom 4, Akesson 4, Ringstrom 17, Myrthil 7, Skjoldebrand
Georgia finally managed to promote to Division A after many narrow failures in the past. They beat Belarus at home 86-84 for a total aggregate of 175-159, as they had already won in Belarus with 75-89. Georgia's overall lead was never bellow 10 throughout the game.
Georgia: Gamqrelidze, V.Boisa 11, A.Boisa, Pachulia 11, Tsintsadze 3, Shermadini 2, Tugushi 13, Sanikidze 18, Metreveli, Ellis 17, Tskitishvili 11, Shengelia
Belarus: Ulyanko 14, Meshcharakou 11, Charykau, Kuzmin 7, Aliakseyeu 9, Korshuk 5, Pusthvar 8, Kandrusevich, Kudrautsau 28, Trastsinetski, Kojenets 2, Gandlin
Game quotes
Zaza Pachulia (Georgia Captain):
"We are really happy, because of the final result. After beating Belarus in both playoff games, Georgia will play in Division A, that was a real dream for us, and now it's reality. We knew that Belarus can play tough basketball and they really played very hard against us. Fortunately, we have won also the second game in the play offs. I think, that playing against us in Tbilisi will be a big trouble for any European team. I have never seen such kind of support, that in Georgia exactly in that match. I would like to dedicate this victory to all Georgians and to my family also, because in these days, I am waiting for my second child and I am happy for that too."
Vladimir Boisa (Georgia Player):
"We have prepared very well for B division matches and for the play-offs of course. It's about 2 month that we all are together and playing and practice for such long time gives us a finally positive result. I think, that the Georgian team has more potential. We are a rather young team, for example I am 28 years and the oldest member of the squad. Anyway, we got good perspective and now we must struggle with more passion in Division A."
Aleksandr Popkov (Belarus Head Coach):
"I would like to congratulate the Georgian national team and their supporters for that victory. It is always difficult to play in such a kind of situation, when about 10 000 fans support their team the whole match. In general, we play better our away matches and the match against Georgia wasn't an exception for us. It was not our best game, but we worked hard on offence and defense and I think for our opponent it was not easy to play against us."
