Serbia defeats Britain, qualifies for Basketball World Cup

Serbia booked the final qualifying spot for the basketball World Cup by beating Great Britain 101-83 in their final qualifying game on Monday.

The Serbs, traditionally one of Europe’s strongest basketball nations, ended on their way to qualification by losing two games to Belgium in the first round and missed a chance to clinch their ticket by losing 97-92 to already-qualified Greece on Friday.

But they made no mistake against Great Britain with Aleksa Avramovic top-scoring with 20 points in Belgrade in the absence of reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jovic of the Denver Nuggets.

However, for the first time since 1982, Basketball powerhouse Argentina would not be participating in the tournament; they lost 79-75 to the Dominican Republic on Sunday.

32 qualifiers:

Africa: Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Angola, South Sudan, Egypt

Asia: Philippines*, Japan*, Iran, New Zealand, Australia, Lebanon, Jordan, China

Americas: USA, Canada, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Venezuela

Europe: Finland, Lithuania, Germany, Greece, Slovenia, France, Latvia, Spain, Italy, Georgia, Montenegro, Serbia

* Philipines and Japan automatically as host nations

AFP