Germany's COLOGNE (AP) — Giannis Antetokounmpo of Greece and Luka Doncic were the two players whose chances of breaking the EuroBasket scoring record were discussed on Tuesday.
He might have contradicted himself a day later.
Doncic led Slovenia past France 88-82 on Wednesday to earn the top seed out of Group B heading into this weekend's start of the knockout phase. Doncic's 47 points were the second-most by anyone in the history of the European Championships.
Rudy Gobert, one of the best defenders in the world and a center for France, said of Luka: "He's a tremendous player.
Slovenia's first 36 points were scored by Doncic, who also finished with a team-high seven rebounds and five assists. Doncic also made 15 of his 23 field goal attempts.
Eddy Terrace scored 63 points for Belgium in a 1957 match against Albania. The previous second-best performance in the EuroBasket was 46 by Greece's Nikos Galis versus Sweden in 1983, which was the only time someone had more points than Doncic on Wednesday.
Antetokounmpo had scored 41 points against Ukraine as of Wednesday, the most in this year's EuroBasket.
With 1:20 remaining, Goran Dragic's basket broke the tie and gave Slovenia (4-1) the lead they would not lose. It was Slovenia's way of getting even after losing to France in the Olympic quarterfinals at the Tokyo Games the previous summer.
Aleksander Sekulic, the Slovenian coach, remarked, "Luka had a terrific night." He spoils us a much, and This seems normal to us. This is not normal."
Serbia had 14 from Dragic. Gobert scored 19 points for France (3-2), which also had contributions from Evan Fournier (15), Amath M'Baye (13), Elie Okobo (11), and Thomas Heurtel (10 points, ten rebounds).
The last round of group play got underway on Wednesday. The competition is divided into four groups of six teams each, and the top four clubs from each group advance to Berlin for the knockout stage, which begins on Saturday.
In EuroBasket, Lithuania will advance to the knockout round.
In a matchup where the winner advances from Group B and into the round of 16, Lithuania defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina thanks to 16 points from Marius Grigonis and 13 points and 15 rebounds from Jonas Valanciunas.
For Lithuania, who avoided another must-win game, Arnas Butkevicius and Ignas Brazdeikis each scored 13 points, and Domantas Sabonis added 12.
Bosnia and Herzegovina (2-3) 's Dzanan Musa led all scorers with 22 points, and Jusuf Nurkic scored 15.
Lithuania won thanks to a 30-10 run that spanned the second and third quarters (2-3). Before the run, which gave Lithuania a 62-42 advantage early in the third quarter, the game was knotted at 32.
Hungary was easily defeated by Germany (4-1) as Christian Sengfelder scored 22 points, and Maodo Lo added 21 as they prepared for the trip from Cologne to Berlin (0-5).
In just 12 minutes, Germany's Niels Giffey scored 19 points, Andreas Obst added 16, and Franz Wagner added 15.
Hungry's Zoltan Perl topped all scorers with 15 points, followed by Szilard Benke with 13, Adam Somogyi with 11, and David Vojvoda with 10.
With 2:11 remaining in Tbilisi, Georgia, Lorenzo Brown's jumper gave Spain (4-1) the lead to maintain their lead against Turkey and win the group (3-2).
Willy Hernangomez scored 15 points to lead Spain, and Brown added 11. This coming weekend, Spain and Lithuania will play in the round of 16.
Turkey's Cedi Osman finished with 20 points, while Furkan Korkmaz and Alperen Sengun each added 16 and 14. Turkey will also compete in the knockout round.
Retin Obasohan and Manu Lecomte each scored 25 points as Belgium (3-2) qualified for the group stage.
For Belgium, Maxime De Zeeuw scored 13 goals.
Dee Bost scored 18 points, and Aleksandar Vezenkov added 26 for Bulgaria (1-4), which was eliminated.
Igor Drobnjak scored 22 points, and Kendrick Perry scored 17, helping Montenegro (3-2) defeat Georgia (1-4) to clinch the final qualifying spot out of Group A.
Thaddus McFadden led Georgia with 16 points, Alexander Mamukelashvili with 15, Duda Sanadze with 14, and Giorgi Shermadini with 14.
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