Basketball: Georgia’s Tornike Shengelia in Eurobasket dream team

Georgia forward Tornike Shengelia (C) in action against Slovakia on Wednesday. Photo from www.fiba.com.
Agenda.ge, 16 Sep 2016 - 14:10, Tbilisi,Georgia

A Georgian basketballer, who played an outstanding game when Georgia faced Slovakia this week, has been named as one of five top performers of the latest round of matches in the Eurobasket 2017 European Basketball Championship qualifiers.

Tornike Shengelia, 24, was a stand-out performer in Georgia's 96-68 defeat of Slovakia on Wednesday.

He contributed 31 points to the win and was praised by commentators and fans after the game.

Shengelia’s performance saw him chosen by Eurobasket officials as one of the five best players of game day five.

The other four basketballers chosen in the dream team were Slovenia's Goran Dragic, Belgium's Retin Obasohan, Bosnia and Herzegovina's Miralem Halilovic and Iceland's Hlynur Baeringsson.

The Georgia-Slovakia match, held on two days ago at Sports Palace in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi, was the penultimate fixture of the ongoing qualifiers in Group F. Next up Georgia will face Montenegro.

With four wins in five matches, Georgia is second in the group, trailing Montenegro by a single point. Slovakia currently ranked third in the group while Albania trailed in fourth place.

In Georgia’s final game on Saturday, the team will travel to Montenegro to face Group F leaders. Georgia can still finish first in the pool if they beat the hosts by three points or more.

The top 11 teams emerging from the Eurobasket qualifying tournament will play in the Eurobasket 2017 tournament hosted by Israel, Finland, Romania and Turkey.

See Tornike Shengelia's full statistics for the Eurobasket 2017 qualifier games here.