EUROBASKET 2011

Turning Point: With seven minutes to play, Ukraine hit a three-pointer that cut the gap down to 10 points and kept them within reach, but they then scored just a single point over the next four minutes, allowing Georgia to seal the win.

Game Hero: 20-year-old Tornike Shengelia, MVP of this summer's U20 Division B European Championship, came off the bench for Georgia and scored 12 points to go with seven boards and had a big follow-up dunk.

Stats Don't Lie: Ukraine scored only nine points in the final quarter, five of them when the game's outcome was already decided.

Georgia made a big move towards reaching the next round with a 69-53 victory over Ukraine in the first game of the day in Group D on Sunday.

The win saw Georgia improve to 2-2 before their last game of the round on Monday, while Ukraine fell to 1-3.

Manuchar Markoishvili and George Tsintsadze led the winners with 14 points apiece and youngster Tornike Shengelia added 12 with seven rebounds.

Steve Burtt and Oleksiy Pecherov were Ukraine's only players in double-digits with 11 points each.

"We're a team and every day someone else is good," Vladimer Boisa said after the game.

"We don't depend just on one guy, so if someone isn't having a great day other guys will come to cover for him."

Georgia used a big day by their guards Tsintsadze and Markoishvili to cover for a sub-par performance by Zaza Pachulia and Viktor Sanikidze, the latter scoring his points only in the last quarter.

"We played good for one half but didn't show up to the second half," concluded Pecherov.

"It happens to us all the time and we if we want to win games here we need to play good for 40 minutes."

Ukraine enjoyed the better start and led 17-10 at the end of the first quarter, while Georgia didn't find their rhythm with Pachulia struggling to score in the paint.

Better energy and a push from the fans helped Georgia rally back and close the gap as they got within 33-30 by halftime.

Shengelia started attacking the rim and Tsintsadze collected points as well as Ukraine saw their opponent take off.

Ukraine turned the ball over 13 times and scored just 20 points in the entire second half as Georgia got their 16-point win., a gap that can work in their favour in case of a three-way tie with Ukraine and Bulgaria.

On Monday, Georgia will try to complete the job by beating Bulgaria while Ukraine will take on Belgium in hope to get their second win but have no chance of moving on to the next round.