Georgia Stun France to Reach Quarterfinals

Georgia booked its first EuroBasket quarterfinal berth.

WNBA basketball on the floor during a game between the Atlanta Dream and Dallas Wings in the fourth quarter at Gateway Center Arena at College Park.

Image Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images

On Sunday, September 7, Tornika Shengelia and Kamar Baldwin put on a remarkable 48-point combined performance to lead Georgia to a remarkable win in the 2025 FIBA EuroBasket. Georgia pulled off a stunning 80-70 upset over its French counterpart to advance to the quarterfinals of the tournament for the first time in the history. In fact, this was the first time in a decade when the team reached the knockout stage of EuroBasket.

Shengelia and Baldwin dropped 24 points each, on 70% and 80% shooting from the field, respectively. Alexander Mamukelashvili poured in 14 points, 10 rebounds, and 11 assists while shooting 38.5% from the field, 40% from beyond the arc, and 66.7% from the free-throw line. Georgia held France to 35.2% shooting from the field and only 16.7% threes as compared to their 52.1% shooting from the field and 55.6% threes.

On the other hand, the heavyweight France was led by Sylvain Francisco, who dropped 14 points. In addition to him, Guerschon Yabusele poured in 12 points. Notably, France had been nearly perfect in the group stage, where they lost only one game while winning four. Georgia, on the flip side, barely managed to crawl to the knockout stage. They had a 2-3 record, after losing to Italy, Greece and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Tornika Shengelia Believes Georgia’s Strength in their Unity

After the victory, Tornika Shengelia hailed their unity as the reason behind their victory. He feels that if they combine unity and their belief in each other, it would help them do wonders and take down even the most powerful teams.

Shengelia said, “(Unity) is our strength, honestly. If we go out there and play with the skills or only X’s and O’s, there are not a lot of teams we might beat. Both those two things that I just mentioned, if you combine that with unity and believing in each other, fighting for each other – it doesn’t matter if you have zero points or if you have 20 points – you saw today everybody was cheering for each other, fighting for each other, sharing the ball.”

He added, “And every time we played like that, we won the game. And every time we didn’t, we lost the game. It’s mostly about us. If we pay more attention to the strengths, we have a lot more chance to go further.”

This is the second consecutive day where underdogs stunned the basketball world by pulling some of the most notable upsets to advance to the quarterfinals. In the next round, Georgia will lock horns with Finland, which is coming on the back of a win over Nikola Jokic-led Serbia on Saturday.

Garima Ranawat

Garima is a sports writer with around two years of experience in Indian sports and a newfound interest in the NBA. Inspired by the leadership of cricketing legend MS Dhoni, she wishes to bring in newer perspectives to the NBA fanatics with her writing.

Georgia Stun France to Reach Quarterfinals

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