Estonia's basketball team sneaks last ditch win over Sweden, ahead of Euros
The Estonian men's national basketball team got away with a slim victory Wednesday, beating Sweden 88:87 away in the team's penultimate warm-up match ahead of the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 starting later this month.
The team had already beaten Georgia 75:70 and Israel 93:81 in its warmers, but lost 89:68 to Lithuania, traditionally the Baltic basketball powerhouse nation.
Wednesday's match in Stockholm began evenly enough with the score 21:21 at the end of the first quarter. The visitors began to dictate the pace in the second quarter, opening up a 44:34 lead at one point. The Swedes cut down the deficit to eight points by halftime, however.
While Estonia pulled ahead to 10 points in front at the start of the third quarter, Sweden went on a 12:4 score run and closed in again on the visitors. Long-range shots by shooting guard Joonas Riismaa (Pallacanestro Cantù) and power forward Kregor Hermet (Kalev/Cramo) took Estonia into the final quarter 69:63 up, however.
Small forward Siim-Sander Vene (Stal Ostrów Wielkopolski) also scored from distance at the start of the crunch quarter, but the hosts, backed by a noisy home crowd, pulled back from that deficit as well. Three minutes before the final buzzer Estonia was still six ahead, but again the Swedes erased that lead.
It looked like Sweden were going to take the win in the end as they managed to lead by two points with 42 seconds remaining. However on the next possession small forward Artur Konontšuk (Bursaspor Basketbol) hit an ice cold three-pointer from the corner to put Estonia ahead by just one point.
The Swedes then played all their focus on their NBA man Pelle Larsson (Miami Heat) who drove against Sander Raieste (UCAM Murcia) under the basket, but that last ditch lay-up rolled off the rim to give Estonia a bracing 88:87 win.
Shooting guard Kristian Kullamäe (Bilbao Basket) scored 16 points in the match, 13 of them in the first two quarters; Konontšuk, who scored the decisive points at the end, contributed 14 overall. Ex-NBA G-League player Henri Drell (La Laguna Tenerife) added 12, and Kaspar Treier (Napoli Basket) and Vene netted a further 10 apiece.
Estonia has one more pre-Euros match to go, this Friday, when it hosts Great Britain at the Tondiraba Ice Hall in Tallinn.
EuroBasket 2025 starts next Wednesday, August 27, with Cyprus, Finland, Poland and Latvia all hosting games. The Estonian side is in action on day one in its Group A fixture against Serbia, in Riga. The rest of Group A consists of: Portugal, Turkey, the Czech Republic plus hosts Latvia.
The official competition site is here.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Kristjan Kallaste
