Georgia Stun Bulgaria, Blow Group Wide Open

Bulgaria coach Rosen Barchovski was furious after his team slipped to defeat against Belgium earlier in the week and his mood won't have improved after his team slumped to successive defeats in the EuroBasket 2011 Qualifying Round - this time an 83-79 home floor loss against Georgia.

A poor third quarter was partly to blame as this latest setback dealt a seriously blow to the hopes of Bulgaria booking their place for Lithuania next year.

For Georgia however it was a terrific success since it really does blow the group wide open. They moved to three wins and one loss, knowing something could give when unbeaten Belgium traveling to Poland.

The visiting team edged a tight first quarter 23-22 and after the scores were tied at 31-31, back-to-back triples from Manuchar Markoishvili and Giorgi Gamqrelidze opened up some daylight.

However a 10-2 run by Bulgaria swung the pendulum back in the favour of the hosts and they led 43-39 at the end of the first half.

The third quarter then saw Georgia re-establish the initiative at 58-54 heading into the final ten minutes of action and they extended their lead to seven before Bulgaria came storming back with 9 unanswered points.

With the game hanging in the balance heading down the last few minutes, it was Georgia that made the critical run with Taurean Green seeing his side home with 8 points in crunch time.

The win was particularly difficult to take for Filip Videnov who conjured up another big performance as he went off for a game high 29 points.

However it didn't prove to be enough with Georgia having similarly impressive performances from the red-hot Markoishvili who claimed 23 points including four of five from the perimeter while Zaza Pachulia harvested 12 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists.

Quotes Bulgaria vs. Georgia

Georgia player Zaza Pachulia:
"As the coach said we are extremely happy that we won this game. I knew it would be tough because I have been in Bulgaria twice and I know it is very hard to play in their home arena. Once I played in an official game and once a friendly tournament and I told my team-mates it won't be easy. We were very well prepared and scouted the team of Bulgaria very well. From the players' side I must say that we tried to fulfill all the goals that were given to us by the staff. We got our ups and downs in the game and fought to win at the end."

Bulgaria coach Rosen Barchovski:
"That was a really bad result for us. We needed the home win very much in order to stay in the fight for the top spot in the group. Again our defense was not on the level that we played in the preparation period and that we need. Anyway we limited Pachulia who scored only 12 points and normally he averages 21. We stopped the low post game. The problem for us came from the three-point line. The team of Georgia hit only 27 % from that distance in the three games prior to tonight's. Today they scored nine three pointers and reached 45 % percentage. This was a surprise element for us. I do not want to excuse ourselves but the little injuries that many of the players have - the twins Deyan I Kaloyan Ivanov, Filip Videno - took them out of their rhythm and it is hard for us to get it back. I expected more from Earl Calloway but we cannot blame him, he might be tired. I still believe he is a good pick. We need to distribute the points among all the players on the court and not only two or three to score a lot. We missed the points of Kostov, S. Georgiev, Z. Georgiev, the Ivanov twins. We look forward to the rest of the games and do not give up. It is not impossible for us to win the games in Georgia and Poland."

Bulgaria player Chavdar Kostov:
"We analyzed the game of Georgia very well and the coaches did a good job in scouting. We managed to go ahead at a certain point of the game but after silly turnovers and not quite a good defense we lost at the end of the game. I think we did not play bad but also we did not play good. We needed some luck at the end."