Georgia survive late scare by Iceland to snatch their maiden World Cup ticket / News - Basketnews.com

Georgia made it to their first-ever FIBA World Cup despite a home loss to Iceland.

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

Despite suffering a big scare in the closing minutes, Georgia clinched a World Cup spot thanks to their three-point loss (77-80) to Iceland in Tbilisi (19-19, 23-24, 18-19, 17-18). That was the bare minimum required in order for them to advance, as in the case Iceland won by 4 or more points, they would have been the team to go through.

Iceland / Schedule

Iceland Spain61-80 Georgia Iceland77-80

Even so, after an unsuccessful 2022 EuroBasket run that didn't include injured Toko Shengelia, the Georgians got what they wanted.

Giorgi Shermadini led Ilias Zouros' team on offense with 23 points (9/9 FGs, 5/5 FTs), plus 6 rebounds and 3 assists.

Tornike Shengelia had a great run in the second and third quarter, but ran out of steam in the end. The team's captain had 20 points on 5/14 from the field, 7/10 free throws, 6 rebounds and 5 dimes. Thad McFadden added 17 points on 5/16 shooting and 4 rebounds. Only seven players scored from Georgia's squad.

Elvar Fridriksson almost single-handedly kept Iceland in contention, scoring 25 points on 7/17 from the field and 9/9 from the line. However, he was also the player to miss what would have been Iceland's most important shot - a completely open 3-pointer that would have allowed his side to lead by 6 (77-83).

Two more players, Jon Axel Gudmundsson and Tryggvi Hlinason, were in double digits (12 and 11 points, respectively). Iceland missed their chance to become the smallest nation to qualify for the World Cup, just a couple of hours after Cape Verde had been the country to take that title.

Giorgi Shermadini scored 11 points on a perfect 5/5 from the field to pace Georgia in the first quarter. However, apart from some occasional help by Thad McFadden and Toko Shengelia, the Lenovo Tenerife big man did all the heavy lifting. That's one of the reasons why the hosts couldn't hold on to their early seven-point (19-12) lead and saw Iceland tie on the back of a 0-7 run.

Shengelia somehow managed to pick it up in the next two quarters, when he scored 15 points, keeping Georgia in the race. But Elvar Fridriksson counterbalanced the situation for Iceland with 22 points in as many minutes.

The delicate balance kept on in the final stretch, as Jon Axel Gudmundsson drained a 3-point shot that allowed the guests to take the upper hand (68-66), with five minutes remaining. Shengelia sank a couple of free throws and McFadden hit a 3-pointer to put Georgia back up (76-75) with 42 seconds left, but Tryggvi Hlinason responded instantly (76-78).

George Tsintsadze seemed to redeem himself for the foul committed, making a free throw (77-78), but then he missed the second and fouled Jon Axel Gudmundsson, who found the way to score two more easy points from the stripe. Iceland had to stop the clock, and when Shengelia missed both of his attempts from the 4.5 m-distance, Elvar Fridriksson had his chance to make history.

But Rytas Vilnius guard, despite being wide-open, didn't make that one, and Georgia celebrated their World Cup qualification.

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