The current champion will not miss her appointment with next summer’s Eurobasket in Latvia, Cyprus, Finland and Poland. Spain, with four continental golds and 14 medals in total, sealed its 32nd consecutive qualification for the European national team tournament in Ourense after defeating Slovakia again (84-71).
Santi Yusta’s miraculous triple in Bratislava with four tenths remaining gave the Spanish the first opportunity to qualify at the Pazo Paco Paz and they did not waste it. As usually happens with Scariolo in the band, the family applied intensity in defense first. The initial exchange of baskets gave way to a first push by Spain thanks to a triple by Alocén, a steal by Yusta and a layup by De Larrea (20-11).
After the pertinent visiting time-out, Naglic’s team reacted with the help of Brodziansky. The UCAM Murcia player, formerly of Joventut, scored seven points that, together with another basket by Ihring, reduced the difference to two points at the beginning of the second quarter (22-20). He once again applied rhythm and got hands on with a Spanish team that took the lead before the break. Slovakia began to notice the absence of Krajcovic, one of their great scorers in the previous match, while on the local side several troops joined the cause. With Yusta as the main offensive generator, Pradilla and Puerto began to score, who with a dunk culminated the good feelings of Scariolo’s team at the end of the first half (47-32).
Puerto shoots a basket against Slovakia.
Then all the ghosts appeared to Spain. In Bratislava they let a 13-point lead slip away after the restart, the same one that the Spanish squandered at the beginning of the third quarter. Two consecutive triples from Abrham left the duel in a flash (49-47). Puerto stopped the bleeding, from the three-point line, and Spain came back to breathe with five points in a row from Yusta and a great dunk from Guerra. The Tenerife center, a basket from Alocén and a triple from Barreiro left their homework half done before the final push (71-57).
De Larrea gave the maximum advantage with a triple (74-57), but the Eastern European team did not leave the game and dreamed of a comeback after a free throw from Fusek (78-71). Yusta, hero in Slovakia, top scorer with 25 points, appeared again, with two triples, the second very distant, to close the match and buy Spain’s ticket for the Eurobasket.
Technical sheet:
Spain, 84 – Slovakia, 71
Spain (22+25+24+13): Alberto Díaz (-), Santi Yusta (25), Pradilla (8), Puerto (10) and Sima (2) -starting quintet- Alocén (11), Barreiro (5) , Fran Guerra (11), Sergio de Larrea (7), Miquel Salvó (2), Almansa (3), Rafa Villar (-).
Slovakia (18+14+25+14): Volarik (3), David Abrham (6), Malovec (12), Vladimir Brodziansky (19) and Pavelka (11) -starting quintet- Fusek (5), Szabo (3) , Mario Ihring (8) and Majercak (4).
Referees: Michal Proc (Poland), Igor Mitrovski (Macedonia) and Josip Jurcevic (Croatia).
Incidents: match corresponding to the fourth day of group C of the qualifying phase for Eurobasket 2025 played at the Paco dos Deportes Paco Paz in Ourense before about 5,000 spectators. Before the meeting, a minute of silence was observed in memory of the Dana victims.
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